Leaders should lead as far as they can and then vanish. Their ashes should not choke the fire they have lit.

And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers - shriveled now, and brown and flat and brittle - to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of men.

The true strength of rulers and empires lies not in armies or emotions, but in the belief of men that they are inflexibly open and truthful and legal. As soon as a government departs from that standard it ceases to be anything more than 'the gang in possession,' and its days are numbered.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

It sounds plausible enough tonight, but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.

There's truths you have to grow into.

In the scientific world I find just that disinterested devotion to great ends that I hope will spread at last through the entire range of human activity.