It is a popular delusion that the scientific enquirer is under an obligation not to go beyond generalisation of observed facts...but anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond the facts, rarely get as far.

My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get right.

And you very soon find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

Science and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing.

Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation.

There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics none in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a single, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high.

No slavery can be abolished without a double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than the freed-man.