It is with nations as it is with individuals. A book of history is a book of sermons.

It seems very strange ... that in the course of the world's history so obvious an improvement should never have been adopted. ... The next generation of Britishers would be the better for having had this extra hour of daylight in their childhood.

How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!

There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.

No violence, gentlemen — no violence, I beg of you! Consider the furniture!