Our own death is a premium which we must pay for the far greater benefit we have derived from the fact that so many people have not only lived but also died before us.

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period.

An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possessed with an error, it is, like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty.

In practice it is seldom very hard to do one's duty when one knows what it is, but it is sometimes extremely difficult to find this out.

Men of Science. If they are worthy of the name they are indeed about God's path and about his bed and spying out all his ways.

Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

Flying. Whatever any other organism has been able to do man should surely be able to do also, though he may go a different way about it.