The survival or preservation of certain favoured words in the struggle for existence is natural selection.

[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived.

If Mozart, instead of playing the pianoforte at three years old with wonderfully little practice, had played a tune with no practice at all, he might truly have been said to have done so instinctively.

Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.

I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.

Thomson's views on the recent age of the world have been for some time one of my sorest troubles.

I often had to run very quickly to be on time, and from being a fleet runner was generally successful; but when in doubt I prayed earnestly to God to help me, and I well remember that I attributed my success to the prayers and not to my quick running, and marvelled how generally I was aided.