Sir Hiram Maxim is a genuine and typical example of the man of science, romantic, excitable, full of real but somewhat obvious poetry, a little hazy in logic and philosophy, but full of hearty enthusiasm and an honorable simplicity. He is, as he expresses it, "an old and trained engineer," and is like all of the old and trained engineers I have happened to come across, a man who indemnifies himself for the superhuman or inhuman concentration required for physical science by a vague and dangerous romanticism about everything else.

It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.

The noble temptation to see too much in everything.

All we know of the Missing Link is that he is missing - and he won't be missed either.

Over-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other. And a mark of both is the power of medicine-men.

Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.