HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON

Life means progress, and progress means suffering.

The arts are an even better barometer of what is happening in our world than the stock market or the debates in congress.

Somewhere in the world there is an epigram for every dilemma.

A few drops of science will often disinfect an entire barrel full of ignorance and prejudice.

In history as in life it is success that counts. Start a political upheaval and let yourself be caught, and you will hang as a traitor. But place yourself at the head of a rebellion and gain your point, and all future generations will worship you as the Father of their Country.

The history of the world is the record of a man in quest of his daily bread and butter.

An ignorant person is, by the very fact of his or her ignorance, a very dangerous person.

Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession - their ignorance.

The world is in dreadful need of men who will assume the new leadership - who will have the courage of their own visions and who will recognise clearly that we are only at the beginning of the voyage, and have to learn an entirely new system of seamanship.

Nature is rarely allowed to enter the sacred portals of civilized society.

Somewhere in the world there is an epigram for every dilemma.

The arts are an even better barometer of what is happening in our world than the stock market or the debates in congress.

In such a case the writer is apt to have recourse to epigrams. Somewhere in this world there is an epigram for every dilemma.

In history as in life it is success that counts. Start a political upheaval and let yourself be caught, and you will hang as a traitor. But place yourself at the head of a rebellion and gain your point, and all future generations will worship you as the Father of their Country.

Great art... is the result of the labours of thousands of faithful craftsmen who know that they are doomed to remain for ever outside the gates of the Paradise of Perfection, but who nevertheless will give the very best there is in them because the work they do means more to them than anything else in this world.

It is little enough we know and the rest is darkness.

The history of the world is the record of a man in quest of his daily bread and butter.

Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession - their ignorance.

The foundation for a new era was laid but yesterday. The human was given its first chance to become truly civilised when it took courage to question all things and made 'knowledge and understanding' the foundation upon which to create a more reasonable and sensible society of human beings.

An ignorant person is, by the very fact of his or her ignorance, a very dangerous person.

The world is in dreadful need of men who will assume the new leadership - who will have the courage of their own visions and who will recognise clearly that we are only at the beginning of the voyage, and have to learn an entirely new system of seamanship.

A few drops of science will often disinfect an entire barrel full of ignorance and prejudice.

Nature is rarely allowed to enter the sacred portals of civilized society.

....This world needs Utopias as it needs fairy stories. It does not matter so much where we are going, as long as we are making consciously for some definite goal. And a Utopia, however strange or fanciful, is the only possible beacon upon the uncharted seas of the distant future.

Life means progress, and progress means suffering.