What art was to the ancient world, Science is to the modern; the distinctive faculty. In the minds of men, the useful has succeeded to the beautiful.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.
I have lived long enough to know that the evening glow of love has its own riches and splendour.
The question is this – Is man an ape or an angel? My Lord, I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence these new fanged theories.
The disappointment of manhood succeeds the delusion of youth.
Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.
King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.
The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.
As a rule, he or she who has the most information will have the greatest success in life.
The expected always happens.
The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation.
It is the lot of man to suffer.
Novelty is an essential attribute of the beautiful.
If you don’t believe in magic, then you can’t believe in reality.
In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of co-operation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbors.
What are the most brilliant of our chymical discoveries compared with the invention of fire and the metals?
Knowledge must be gained by ourselves. Mankind may supply us with facts; but the results, even if they agree with previous ones, must be the work of our own minds.
Why should one say that the machine does not live? It breathes, for its breath forms the atmosphere of some towns.
Scientific, like spiritual truth, has ever from the beginning been descending from heaven to man.
It is remarkable that when great discoveries are effected, their simplicity always seems to detract from their originality: on these occasions we are reminded of the egg of Columbus!