...fact takes no heed of human hopes.

Success is to be measured not by wealth, power, or fame, but by the ratio between what a man is and what he might be.

Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write!

The true objection to slavery is not that it is unjust to the inferior but that it corrupts the superior.

What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall; conditions that put a premium upon the loyal alliance of capable men, upon self-restraint, patience, and decision. And the institution of the family, and the emotions that arise therein, the fierce jealousy, the tenderness for offspring, parental self-devotion, all found their justification and support in the imminent dangers of the young.

There is no reason whatever to believe that the order of nature has any greater bias in favour of man than it had in favour of the ichthyosaur or the pterodactyl.

Room to swing a cat, it seemed was absolutely essential. It was an infrequent but indispensable operation.