He who serves the public is a poor animal; he worries himself to death and no one thanks him for it.

The history of science is science itself; the history of the individual, the individual.

The useful may be trusted to further itself, for many produce it and no one can do without it; but the beautiful must be specially encouraged, for few can present it, while yet all have need of it.

That we understand something perfectly, that we accomplish something better than anyone else around us, that is what matters.

Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.

Boldness has power, magic and genius in it.

Woe to him who would ascribe something like reason to Chance, and make a religion of surrendering to it.