Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.

Humans always have fear of an unknown situation -- this is normal. The important thing is what we do about it. If fear is permitted to become a paralyzing thing that interferes with proper action, then it is harmful. The best antidote to fear is to know all we can about a situation.

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

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.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Every student who enters upon a scientific pursuit, especially if at a somewhat advanced period of life, will find not only that he has much to learn, but much also to unlearn.

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