One can decide that the principal role of knowledge is as an indispensable element in the functioning of society and act in accordance with that decision only if one has already decided that society is a giant machine.

You have already disarmed my men without my knowledge are their arms to be returned or not?

With all the knowledge and skill acquired in thousands of flights in the last ten years I would hardly think today of making my first flight on a strange machine in a twenty-seven mile wind even if I knew that the machine had already been flown and was safe.

Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal few really ASK. On the contrary they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

We can't gather the intelligence we need to foil future attacks if we are blindly granting terrorists the right to remain silent. But for some reason we've already done that - with the terrorist who tried to bring down Flight 253.

Bottom line is I didn't return to Apple to make a fortune. I've been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25 my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn't going to let it ruin my life. There's no way you could ever spend it all and I don't view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.

It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition there are already enough people to do that.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

For me my travels have been the chance to go to a place that already exists in my imagination.