The web of this world is woven of Necessity and Chance. Woe to him who has accustomed himself from his youth up to find something necessary in what is capricious, and who would ascribe something like reason to Chance and make a religion of surrendering to it.

Nature! We live in her midst and know her not. She is incessantly speaking to us, but betrays not her secret. We constantly act upon her, and yet have no power over her. Variant: NATURE! We are surrounded and embraced by her: powerless to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her.

It is belief in the Bible, the fruits of deep meditation, which has served me as the guide of my moral and literary life. I have found capital safely invested and richly productive of interest, although I have sometimes made but a bad use of it.

Help me to discover Thy truth, O Lord, and preserve me from those who have already found it

Tolerance comes of age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.

As soon as any one belongs to a narrow creed in science, every unprejudiced and true perception is gone.

A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself.