I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.

Genius only leaves behind it the monuments of its strength.

The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to ranking spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness.

The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense.

It is hard for any one to be an honest politician who is not born and bred a Dissenter.

Knowledge is pleasure as well as power.

To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.