Ignorance seldom vaults into knowledge.

I attended [Sir Humphry] Davy's lectures to renew my stock of metaphors.

A single thought is that which it is from other thoughts as a wave of the sea takes its form and shape from the waves which precede and follow it.

The wise only possess ideas; the greater part of mankind are possessed by them.

I shall attack Chemistry, like a Shark.

The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman.

Happiness can be built only on virtue, and must of necessity have truth for its foundation.