Development of Western science is based on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationships by systematic experiment (during the Renaissance). In my opinion, one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made these steps. The astonishing thing is that these discoveries were made at all.

Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Insofar as we may at all claim that slavery has been abolished today, we owe its abolition to the practical consequences of science

The restriction of knowledge to an elite group destroys the spirit of the society and leads to its intellectual impoverishment.

The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.

James Clerk Maxwell's [work is the] most profound and the most fruitful.