Some persons have contended that mathematics ought to be taught by making the illustrations obvious to the senses. Nothing can be more absurd or injurious: it ought to be our never-ceasing effort to make people think, not feel.

Men of genius are rarely much annoyed by the company of vulgar people.

So will I build my altar in the fields, And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be, And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields Shall be the incense I will yield to thee.

There is small chance of truth at the goal, where there is not childlike humility at the starting-post.

No man does anything from a single motive.

How strange and awful is the synthesis of life and death in the gusty winds and falling leaves of an autumnal day!

Stimulate the heart to love and the mind to be early accurate, and all other virtues will rise of their own accord, and all vices will be thrown out.