I have learned more from my mistakes than from my successes.

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness, and small obligations given habitually, are what preserve the heart and secure comfort.

The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by failures.

Experimental science hardly ever affords us more than approximations to the truth; and whenever many agents are concerned we are in great danger of being mistaken.

Nothing tends so much to the advancement of knowledge as the application of a new instrument.

We must reason in natural philosophy not from what we hope, or even expect, but from what we perceive.

Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking.

By science calmed, over the peaceful soul, Bright with eternal Wisdom's lucid ray, Peace, meek of eye, extends her soft control, And drives the puny Passions far away.

Consistency in opinion is the slow poison of intellectual life, the destroyer of its vividness and energy.

When two elements combine and form more than one compound, the masses of one element that react with a fixed mass of the other are in the ratio of small whole numbers.

Profound minds are the most likely to think lightly of the resources of human reason, and it is the superficial thinker who is generally strongest in every kind of unbelief.

What I found personally to be true was that it's easier to manipulate people rather than technology.

There's nothing wrong with making little kids happy, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to be an adult actress. I mean a grown-up actress.

The essence of religion, in my view, is the thirst for an end higher than natural ends.

America, you have it better than our continent, the old one.

When I get down on my knees, it is not to pray.

Jewish men don't know anything.

I'd like to know how to play the guitar.

I always take Scotch whiskey at night as a preventive of toothache. I have never had the toothache; and what is more, I never intend to have it.

Natural selection is anything but random.

I love to fool my readers, but in a good way. If you've read any of my work, there's a good chance that at some point I surprised you.