In the moment of appreciation we live again the moment when the creator saw and held the hidden likeness.

We gain our ends only with the laws of nature; we control her only by understanding her laws.

To me the most interesting thing about man is that he is an animal who practices art and science and in every known society practices both together.

The largest single step in the ascent of man is the change from nomad to village agriculture.

Ask an impertinent question and you are on the way to the pertinent answer.

By the worldly standards of public life, all scholars in their work are of course oddly virtuous. They do not make wild claims, they do not cheat, they do not try to persuade at any cost, they appeal neither to prejudice nor to authority, they are often frank about their ignorance, their disputes are fairly decorous, they do not confuse what is being argued with race, politics, sex or age, they listen patiently to the young and to the old who both know everything. These are the general virtues of scholarship, and they are peculiarly the virtues of science.

Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal.