The origin of all science is the desire to know causes, and the origin of all false science is the desire to accept false causes rather than none; or, which is the same thing, in the unwillingness to acknowledge our own ignorance.

Some one is generally sure to be the sufferer by a joke.

Humour is the describing the ludicrous as it is in itself; wit is the exposing it, by comparing or contrasting it with something else. Humour is, as it were, the growth of nature and accident; wit is the product of art and fancy.

It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.

Lying is the strongest acknowledgement of the force of truth.

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

It is well there is no one without fault; for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to s different species.