Speculations apparently the most unprofitable have almost invariably been those from which the greatest practical applications have emanated.

The barrier has begun to yield.

Man is constituted as a speculative being; he contemplates the world, and the objects around him, not with a passive indifferent eye, but as a system disposed with order and design.

A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific inquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustible source of pure and exciting contemplations.

The novel, in its best form, I regard as one of the most powerful engines of civilization ever invented.

Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.

The stars are the land-marks of the universe.