Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

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.

Great men too make mistakes, and many among them do it so often that one is almost tempted to call them little men.

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

If we make a couple of discoveries here and there we need not believe things will go on like this for ever. Just as we hit water when we dig in the earth, so we discover the incomprehensible sooner or later.

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.

Perseverance can lend the appearance of dignity and grandeur to many actions, just as silence in company affords wisdom and apparent intelligence to a stupid person.