Bad writers are those who try to express their own feeble ideas in the language of good ones.

The construction of the universe is certainly very much easier to explain than is that of the plant.

Most subjects at universities are taught for no other purpose than that they may be re-taught when the students become teachers.

A good method of discovery is to imagine certain members of a system removed and then see how what is left would behave: for example, where would we be if iron were absent from the world: this is an old example.

To grow wiser means to learn to know better and better the faults to which this instrument with which we feel and judge can be subject.

Some people come by the name of genius in the same way that certain insects come by the name of centipede -- not because they have a hundred feet, but because most people can't count above 14.

Barbaric accuracy - whimpering humility.