 The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction. |
| I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young. |
| Books are the money of Literature, but only the counters of Science. |
| Learn what is true in order to do what is right. |
| There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. |
| No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life. |
| Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation. |
| Freedom and order are not incompatible... truth is strength... free discussion is the very life of truth. |
| The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest blunders and commit the fewest sins. |
| Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. |
| The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect. |
| The results of political changes are hardly ever those which their friends hope or their foes fear. |
| Patience and tenacity are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness. |
| There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics none in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a single, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high. |
| The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin. |
| The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. |
| The Bible has been the Magna Carta of the poor and of the oppressed. |
| Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors. |
| It is one of the most saddening things in life that, try as we may, we can never be certain of making people happy, whereas we can almost always be certain of making them unhappy. |
| Teach a child what is wise, that is morality. Teach him what is wise and beautiful, that is religion! |
