Who is fit to govern others? He who governs himself. You might as well have said: nobody.

People cannot go wrong, if you don't let them. They cannot go right, unless you let them.

Much of this world's wisdom is still acquired by necromancy,--by consulting the oracular dead.

In science its main worth is temporary, as a stepping-stone to something beyond. Even [Newton's] Principia ... is truly but the beginning of a natural philosophy. Co-author with his brother Julius Hare.

Leaves are light, and useless, and idle, and wavering, and changeable; they even dance; and yet God in his wisdom has made them a part of oaks. And in so doing he has given us a lesson, not to deny the stout-heartedness within because we see the lightsomeness without.

If you wish a general to be beaten, send him a ream full of instructions; if you wish him to succeed, give him a destination, and bid him conquer.

Life is the hyphen between matter and spirit.