It is death, and not what comes after death, that men are generally afraid of.

If [science] tends to thicken the crust of ice on which, as it were, we are skating, it is all right. If it tries to find, or professes to have found, the solid ground at the bottom of the water it is all wrong. Our business is with the thickening of this crust by extending our knowledge downward from above, as ice gets thicker while the frost lasts; we should not try to freeze upwards from the bottom.

Man, unlike the animals, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it.

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.

The public do not know enough to be experts, but know enough to decide between them.

There should be asylums for habitual teetotalers, but they would probably relapse into teetotalism as soon as they got out.

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