When any real progress is made, we unlearned and learn anew what we thought we knew before.

What is the singing of birds, or any natural sound, compared with the voice of one we love.

The greatest and saddest defect is not credulity, but an habitual forgetfulness that our science is ignorance.

There has always been the same amount of light in the world. The new and missing stars, the comets and eclipses, do not affect thegeneral illumination, for only our glasses appreciate them.

Heroes are often the most ordinary of men.

I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man: wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morningwith a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and will destroy England and America.

We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character.