Spring never is spring unless it comes too soon.

He is only a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of the Conservative.

The worst moment for an atheist is when he feels a profound sense of gratitude and has no one to thank.

The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.

Real development is not leaving things behind, as on a road, but drawing life from them, as from a root.

Facts as facts do not always create a spirit of reality, because reality is a spirit.

Men can construct a science with very few instruments, or with very plain instruments; but no one on earth could construct a science with unreliable instruments. A man might work out the whole of mathematics with a handful of pebbles, but not with a handful of clay which was always falling apart into new fragments, and falling together into new combinations. A man might measure heaven and earth with a reed, but not with a growing reed.