It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is laid to rest in repositories.

Rational free spirits are the light brigade who go on ahead and reconnoiter the ground which the heavy brigade of the orthodox will eventually occupy.

A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.

The highest point to which a weak but experienced mind can rise is detecting the weakness of better men.

Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes.

One cannot demand of a scholar that he show himself a scholar everywhere in society, but the whole tenor of his behavior must none the less betray the thinker, he must always be instructive, his way of judging a thing must even in the smallest matters be such that people can see what it will amount to when, quietly and self-collected, he puts this power to scholarly use.

It is a great shame; most of our words are misused tools / which often still smell of the mud in which previous owners / desecrated them.