Even under the most favorable circumstances no mortal can be asked to seize the truth in its wholeness or at its center.

Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.

I love moving water, I love ships, I love the sharp definition, the concentrated humanity, the sublime solitude of life at sea. The dangers of it only make present to us the peril inherent in all existence, which the stupid, ignorant, un-travelled land-worm never discovers; and the art of it, so mathematical, so exact, so rewarding to intelligence, appeals to courage and clears the mind of superstition, while filling it with humility and true religion.

Towers in a modern town are a frill and a survival; they seem like the raised hands of the various churches, afraid of being overlooked, and saying to the forgetful public, Here I am! Or perhaps they are rival lightning rods, saying to the emanations of divine grace, "Please strike here!

Art like life, should be free, since both are experimental.

There is nothing to which men, while they have food and drink, cannot reconcile themselves.

Reason in my philosophy is only a harmony among irrational impulses.