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.

Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.

You cannot have a thing "matter" by itself which shall have no motion in it, nor yet a thing "motion" by itself which shall exist apart from matter; you must have both or neither. You can have matter moving much, or little, and in all conceivable ways; but you cannot have matter without any motion more than you can have motion without any matter that is moving.

Brigands will demand your money or your life, but a woman will demand both

To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead.

Adversity, if a man is set down to it by degrees, is more supportable with equanimity by most people than any great prosperity arrived at in a single lifetime.

Whatsoever we perpetrate, we do but row; we are steered by fate.