That our knowledge only illuminates a small corner of the Universe, that it is incomplete, approximate, tentative and merely probable need not concert us. It is genuine nevertheless. Physical science stands as one of the great achievements of the human spirit.
Ultimately, I want a peak experience in reading, and that is sometimes difficult to find in contemporary fiction. I'm not interested in books that are just clever and well executed; polish doesn't impress me, and I don't care about a merely capable sentence. Life is short; I want a confrontation with high art. I want soul.
I no longer cared about survival. . . I merely loved.
Life consists not merely in existing, but in enjoying health.
Travel doesn't merely broaden the mind. It makes the mind.
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
If a publisher declines your manuscript, remember it is merely the decision of one fallible human being, and try another.
Age is merely a suit, and not a new dress.
The man who can own up to his error is greater than he who merely knows how to avoid making it.
Unless one says goodbye to what one loves, and unless one travels to completely new territories, one can expect merely a long wearing away of oneself and an eventual extinction.
Understanding' is merely the sum total of our misunderstandings.
You cannot have a good character today and at the same time have a small mind and a little heart. You cannot have a good character today and be merely a petty reformer.
Building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
While the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser.
It is time to celebrate the New Black Americans - those who have sealed the Deal, who aren't beholden to liberal indulgence any more than they are to the disdain of the hard Right. It is time to praise blacks who are merely undeniable in their individuality and exemplary in their levels of achievement.
Index-learning turns no student pale, Yet holds the eel of Science by the tail. Index-learning is a term used to mock pretenders who acquire superficial knowledge merely by consulting indexes.
Beware of anyone who calls you bad names merely for asking honest questions. Beware of anyone who insists on reframing your sincere curiosity as a character defect. Beware of anyone who questions your motives while ignoring your facts. When someone calls you bad names merely for asking questions, it suggests they know the answer but are terrified to admit it.
All tradition is merely the past.
Marriage equality is coming, and not merely to a theater near you.
He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them.