A nation has a fixed quantity of invention, and it will make itself felt.

A university should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.

How much has happened in these fifty years—a period more remarkable than any, I will venture to say, in the annals of mankind. I am not thinking of the rise and fall of Empires, the change of dynasties, the establishment of Governments. I am thinking of those revolutions of science which have had much more effect than any political causes, which have changed the position and prospects of mankind more than all the conquests and all the codes and all the legislators that ever lived.

I would paint what has not been unhappily called the psychological character.

It is a vulgar belief that our astronomical knowledge dates only from the recent century when it was rescued from the monks who imprisoned Galileo; but Hipparchus…who among other achievements discovered the precession of the eqinoxes, ranks with the Newtons and the Keplers; and Copernicus, the modern father of our celestial science, avows himself, in his famous work, as only the champion of Pythagoras, whose system he enforces and illustrates. Even the most modish schemes of the day on the origin of things, which captivate as much by their novelty as their truth, may find their precursors in ancient sages, and after a careful analysis of the blended elements of imagination and induction which charaterise the new theories, they will be found mainly to rest on the atom of Epicurus and the monad of Thales. 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!

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.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of man. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

Men moralise among ruins.

Modern science has vindicated the natural equality of man.

Nature is stronger than education.

No one for a moment can pretend that printing is so great a discovery as writing, or algebra as a language.

Scientific, like spiritual truth, has ever from the beginning been descending from heaven to man.

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much are the three pillars of learning.

Success is the child of audacity.

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.

The pursuit of science leads only to the insoluble.

The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, am on the side of the angels.
[Debating Darwin's Origin of Species.]

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

The world is devoted to physical science, because it believes theses discoveries will increase its capacity of luxury and self-indulgence. But the pursuit of science only leads to the insoluble.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.

Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.

What are the most brilliant of our chymical discoveries compared with the invention of fire and the metals?

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. … There are great truths to tell, if we had either the courage to announce them or the temper to receive them.

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. Instead of the city of the Violet Crown, a Lancashire village has expanded into a mighty region of factories and warehouses. Yet, rightly understood, Manchester is as great a human exploit; as Athens.

What is the question now placed before society with a glib assurance the most astounding? The question is this—Is man an ape or an angel? My Lord Bishop, I am on the side of the angels. … I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence those new fangled theories.

What is wanted in architecture, as in so many things, is a man. ... One suggestion might be made—no profession in England has done its duty until it has furnished a victim. ... Even our boasted navy never achieved a great victory until we shot an admiral. Suppose an architect were hanged? Terror has its inspiration, as well as competition.

Why should one say that the machine does not live? It breathes, for its breath forms the atmosphere of some towns.

You know, all is development. The principle is perpetually going on. First, there was nothing, then there was something; then—I forget the next—I think there were shells, then fishes; then we came—let me see—did we come next? Never mind that; we came at last. And at the next change there will be something very superior to us—something with wings. Ah! That's it: we were fishes, and I believe we shall be crows.

Beaconsfield said: “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” The first portion of this observation is just freighted down with truth. Take the action of sawing hard and dry wood, for instance. You wager it doesn’t bring happiness instead of backache.