The greater part of human misery is caused by indolence.

The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.

Doubt everything at least once, even the sentence "Two times two is four."

With prophecies the commentator is often a more important man than the prophet.

There is no more important rule of conduct in the world than this: attach yourself as much as you can to people who are abler than you and yet not so very different that you cannot understand them.

There is a great difference between believing in something and believing in it again.

The celebrated painter Gainsborough got as much pleasure from seeing violins as from hearing them.