Children are natural mythologists: they beg to be told tales, and love not only to invent but to enact falsehoods.

Eloquence is a republican art, as conversation is an aristocratic one.

Art is the response to the demand for entertainment, for the stimulation of our senses and imagination, and truth enters into it only as it subserves these ends.

...science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common-sense rounded out and minutely articulated. It is therefore as much an instinctive product, as much a stepping forth of human courage in the dark, as is any inevitable dream or impulsive action.

There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.