It is right that we should stand by and act on our principles; but not right to hold them in obstinate blindness, or retain them when proved to be erroneous.

Why will people go astray when they have this blessed Book to guide them?

I could trust a fact and always cross-question an assertion.

I think chemistry is being frittered away by the hairsplitting of the organic chemists; we have new compounds discovered, which scarcely differ from the known ones and when discovered are valueless-very illustrations perhaps of their refinements in analysis, but very little aiding the progress of true science.

The book of nature which we have to read is written by the finger of God.

I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.

Physicist is both to my mouth and ears so awkward that I think I shall never use it. The equivalent of three separate sounds of "I" in one word is too much.