Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for the Liberation of Mankind. - Nikolai Ostrovsky
I want to bring out the secrets of nature and apply them for the happiness of man. I don't know of any better service to offer for the short time we are in the world. - Thomas Alva Edison
A scholar should be judged in a new light when he reappears after an absence.
(A scholar who has been away three days must be looked with new eyes.) - Chinese Idiom