The glory of a workman, still more of a master workman, that he does his work well, ought to be his most precious possession; like the honor of a soldier, dearer to him than life.

Science must have originated in the feeling that something was wrong.

History is a great dust heap.

Why tell me that a man is a fine speaker, if it is not the truth that he is speaking?

Man makes circumstances, and spiritually as well as economically, is the artificer of his own fortune.

If I say that Shakespeare is the greatest of intellects, I have said all concerning him. But there is more in Shakespeare's intellect than we have yet seen. It is what I call an unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it that he himself is aware of.

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.