My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free.

I am not a person of opinions because I feel the counter arguments too strongly.

He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.

How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!

In other studies you go as far as other have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder.

Once a king ... it was impossible, without risk of life, to sink to a private station.

Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.