Whenever a man can get hold of numbers, they are invaluable: if correct, they assist in informing his own mind, but they are still more useful in deluding the minds of others. Numbers are the masters of the weak, but the slaves of the strong.

That science has long been neglected and declining in England, is not an opinion originating with me, but is shared by many, and has been expressed by higher authority than mine.

The first steps in the path of discovery, and the first approximate measures, are those which add most to the existing knowledge of mankind.

There is, however, another purpose to which academies contribute. When they consist of a limited number of persons, eminent for their knowledge, it becomes an object of ambition to be admitted on their list.

What is there in a name? It is merely an empty basket, until you put something into it.

Whenever the work is itself light, it becomes necessary, in order to economize time, to increase the velocity.

The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data.