To render aid to the worthless is sheer waste. Rain does not freshen the Dead Sea, but only enables it to dissolve more salt.

Boundaries which mark off one field of science from another are purely artificial, are set up only for temporary convenience. Let chemists and physicists dig deep enough, and they reach common ground.

When we try to imagine a chaos we fail. ... In its very fiber the mind is an order and refuses to build a chaos.

Error held as truth has much the effect of truth. In politics and religion this fact upsets many confident predictions.

They will listen with both ears to what is said by the men just a step or two ahead of them, who stand nearest to them, and within arm's reach. A guide ceases to be of any use when he strides so far ahead as to be hidden by the curvature of the earth.

Form may be of more account than substance. A lens of ice will focus a solar beam to a blaze.

A calculating engine is one of the most intricate forms of mechanism, a telegraph key one of the simplest. But compare their value.