Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.
The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
Those who are ignorant of Geology, find no difficulty in believing that the world was made as it is; and the shepherd, untutored in history, sees no reason to regard the green mounds which indicate the site of a Roman camp, as aught but part and parcel of the primeval hill-side.
Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth.
It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.
The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.
Science is simply common sense at its best.
Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.
Proclaim human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve his brother.
The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
If a man cannot do brain work without stimulants of any kind, he had better turn to hand work it is an indication on Nature’s part that she did not mean him to be a head worker.
In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.
Friendship involves many things but, above all the power of going outside oneself and appreciating what is noble and loving in another.
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.