The great word Evolution had not yet, in 1860, made a new religion of history, but the old religion had preached the same doctrinefor a thousand years without finding in the entire history of Rome anything but flat contradiction.

Some day science may have the existence of mankind in its power, and the human race commit suicide, by blowing up the world.

Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops.

Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

[P]hilosophy . . .consists chiefly in suggesting unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.

I firmly believe, that before many centuries more, science will be the master of man. The engines he will have invented will be beyond his strength to control. Someday, science shall have the existence of mankind in its power, and the human race commit suicide by blowing up the world.

A society in stable equilibrium is-by definition-one that has no history and wants no historians.