(Five) thinkers since Galileo, each informing his successor of what discoveries his own lifetime had seen achieved, might have passed the torch of science into our hands as we sit here in this room. Indeed, for the matter of that, an audience much smaller than the present one, an audience of some 5 or 6 score people, if each person in it could speak for his own generation, would carry us away to the black unknown of the human species, to days without a document or monument to tell their tale.

A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.

Every way of classifying a thing is but a way of handling it for some particular purpose.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

... no bell in us tolls to let us know for certain when truth is in our grasp.

There is a voice inside which speaks and says, "This is the real me!"

Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working-day, he may safely leave the result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation.