I care not what subject is taught, if only it be taught well.

[Scientists] have learned to respect nothing but evidence, and to believe that their highest duty lies in submitting to it however it may jar against their inclinations.

Teach a man to read and write, and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom-box.

The very existence of society depends on the fact that every member of it tacitly admits he is not the exclusive possessor of himself, and that he admits the claim of the polity of which he forms a part, to act, to some extent, as his master.

If there is anything in the world which I do firmly believe in, it is the universal validity of the law of causation.

I have no faith, very little hope, and as much charity as I can afford.

Trust a witness in all matters in which neither his self-interest, his passions, his prejudices, nor the love of the marvellous is strongly concerned. When they are involved, require corroborative evidence in exact proportion to the contravention of probability by the thing testified.