It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

We do not yet trust the unknown power of thoughts.

If men would avoid that general language and general manner in which they strive to hide all that is peculiar, and would say only what was uppermost in their own minds, after their own individual manner, every man would be interesting.

The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of a planet through a telescope is worth all the course on astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow outvalues all theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry.

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.

The regular course of studies, the years of academical and professional education, have not yielded me better facts than some idle books under the bench at the Latin School.

Life is an ecstasy. Life is sweet as nitrous oxide.