All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.
Every writer ''creates'' his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.
A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.
A process which led from the amoebae to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress - though whether the amoebae would agree with this opinion is not known.
