Religion either makes men wise and virtuous, or it makes them set up false pretenses to both.

[Science is] the desire to know causes.

The number of objects we see from living in a large city amuses the mind like a perpetual raree-show, without supplying it with any ideas.

A great chess-player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it. No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness. This will apply to all displays of power or trials of skill, which are confined to the momentary, individual effort, and construct no permanent image or trophy of themselves without them

A wise traveler never despises his own country.

I have a much greater ambition to be the best racket player than the best prose writer.

When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.