It is impossible not to feel stirred at the thought of the emotions of man at certain historic moments of adventure and discovery - Columbus when he first saw the Western shore, Pizarro when he stared at the Pacific Ocean, Franklin when the electric spark came from the string of his kite, Galileo when he first turned his telescope to the heavens. Such moments are also granted to students in the abstract regions of thought, and high among them must be placed the morning when Descartes lay in bed and invented the method of co-ordinate geometry.

The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature.

Systems, scientific or philosophic, come and go. Each method of limited understanding is at length exhausted. In its prime each system is a triumphant success: in its decay it is an obstructive nuisance.

Human life is driven forward by its dim apprehension of notions too general for its existing language.

Our reasonings grasp at straws for premises and float on gossamers for deductions.

The pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit.

Without adventure all civilization is full of decay. Adventure rarely reaches its predetermined end. Columbus never reached China.