Without deductive logic science would be entirely useless. It is merely a barren game to ascend from the particular to the general, unless afterwards we can reverse the process and descend from the general to the particular, ascending and descending like angels on Jacob's ladder.

The preternatural solemnity of a good many of the professionally religious is to me a point against them.

You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves.

From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.

The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past.

How the past perishes is how the future becomes.

It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious.