I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.

Living, as I do, in an educated and scientific atmosphere, I could not have conceived that the first principles of zoology were so little known. Is it possible that you do not know the elementary fact in comparative anatomy, that the wing of a bird is really the forearm, while the wing of a bat consists of three elongated fingers with membranes between?

There is a mystery about this which stimulates the imagination; where there is no imagination there is no horror.

Still, it is an error to argue in front of your data. You find yourself insensibly twisting them round to fit your theories.

What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently: "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.

So tomorrow we disappear into the unknown. This account I am transmitting down the river by canoe, and it may be our last word to those who are interested in our fate.

A fine thought in fine language is a most precious jewel, and should not be hid away, but be exposed for use and ornament.