The extremes of vice and virtue are alike detestable, and absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is.

He dons are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything.

There are two classes [of scientists], those who want to know, and do not care whether others think they know or not, and those who do not much care about knowing, but care very greatly about being reputed as knowing.

Nature. As the word is now commonly used it excludes nature's most interesting productions-the works of man. Nature is usually taken to mean mountains, rivers, clouds and undomesticated animals and plants. I am not indifferent to this half of nature, but it interests me much less than the other half.

There are two great rules of life; the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can, in the end, get what he wants, if he only tries. That is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is, more or less, an exception to the rule.

How often do we not see children ruined through the virtues, real or supposed, of their parents?

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.