I must begin with a good body of facts and not from a principle (in which I always suspect some fallacy) and then as much deduction as you please.

I must begin with a good body of facts and not from a principle (in which I always suspect some fallacy) and then as much deduction as you please.

Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music.

A surprising number [of novels] have been read aloud to me, and I like all if moderately good, and if they do not end unhappily-against which a law ought to be passed.

I feel like an old warhorse at the sound of a trumpet when I read about the capturing of rare beetles.

we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps

Man, wonderful man, must collapse, into nature's cauldron, he is no deity, he is no exception.