Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form.
There are three stages of scientific discovery: first people deny it is true; then they deny it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.
I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves.
How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is.
True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united.
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Die gefährlichste Weltanschauung ist die Weltanschauung derer, die die Welt nie angeschaut haben. (The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world)
The most dangerous worldviews are the worldviews of those who have never viewed the world.
If we glance at the most important revolutions in history, we see at once that the greatest number of these originated in the periodical revolutions on the human mind.
The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.
However great an evil immorality may be, we must not forget that it is not without its beneficial consequences. It is only through extremes that men can arrive at the middle path of wisdom and virtue.
There are some races more cultured and advanced and ennobled by education than others; but there are no races nobler than others. All are equally destined for freedom.
People often say that I'm curious about too many things at once... But can you really forbid a man from harbouring a desire to know and embrace everything that surrounds him?
Wherever the citizen becomes indifferent to his fellows, so will the husband be to his wife, and the father of a family toward the members of his household.
Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury.
Mere communion with nature, mere contact with the free air, exercise a soothing yet comforting and strengthening influence on the wearied mind, calm the storm of passion, and soften the heart when shaken by sorrow to its inmost depths.
Insight into universal nature provides an intellectual delight and sense of freedom that no blows of fate and no evil can destroy.
War seems to be one of the most salutary phenomena for the culture of human nature; and it is not without regret that I see it disappearing more and more from the scene.
Collaboration operates through a process in which the successful intellectual achievements of one person arouse the intellectual passions and enthusiasms of others.
It is usually more important how a man meets his fate than what it is.
Language makes infinite use of finite media.
Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take with us.
At no other time has Nature concentrated such a wealth of valuable nourishment into such a small space as in the cocoa bean.
With most animals, as with man, the alertness of the senses diminishes after years of work, after domestic habits and progress of culture.
Before being free, it is necessary to be just
The philosophical study of nature endeavors, in the the vicissitudes of phenomena, to connect the present with the past.
Our imagination is struck only by what is great; but the lover of natural philosophy should reflect equally on little things.
Nature can be so soothing to the tormented mind
Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people.
The expression of vanity and self-love becomes less offensive, when it retains something of simplicity and frankness.
 that whilst the number of accurate instruments was daily increasing, we were still ignorant ){kind=small}
I saw with regret, (and all scientific men have shared this feeling) that whilst the number of accurate instruments was daily increasing, we were still ignorant
