We own almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.

With books, as with companions, it is of more consequence to know which to avoid, than which to choose; for good books are as scarce as good companions...

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

I will not be revenged, and this I owe to my enemy; but I will remember, and this I owe to myself.

The science of mathematics performs more than it promises, but the science of metaphysics promises more than it performs.

My lowest days as a Christian have been more fulfilling and rewarding than all the days of glory in the White House.

Duke Chartres used to boast that no man could have less real value for character than himself, yet he would gladly give twenty thousand pounds for a good one, because he could immediately make double that sum by means of it.