Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property, of a man; like light, it can give little or nothing, but at most may show what is given.

Coining "Dismal Science" as a nickname for Political Economy

If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

Neither in tailoring nor in legislating does man proceed by mere accident.

Love not pleasure; love God. This is the Everlasting Yea, wherein all contradiction is solved.

Why did not somebody teach me the constellations, and make me at home in the starry heavens, which are always overhead, and which I don't half know to this day?

I know so little about any history. How little do I know even about the history of myself.