It is a universal condition of the enjoyable that the mind must believe in the existence of a law, and yet have a mystery to move about in.

In Science, it is when we take some interest in the great discoverers and their lives that it becomes endurable, and only when we begin to trace the development of ideas that it becomes fascinating.

I have looked into most philosophical systems and I have seen that none will work without God.

The true Logic for this world is the Calculus of Probabilities, which takes account of the magnitude of the probability.

Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science.

In every branch of knowledge the progress is proportional to the amount of facts on which to build, and therefore to the facility of obtaining data.

The only laws of matter are those that our minds must fabricate and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.

Faraday is, and must always remain, the father of that enlarged science of electromagnetism.

Mathematicians may flatter themselves that they possess new ideas which mere human language is as yet unable to express.

All the mathematical sciences are founded on relations between physical laws and laws of numbers.

It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in the nascent state.

To know your soul is your own, that's what counts.

My hopes for pie died on the sidewalk. There went my grin.

I suggest you leave now, or you’ll be tied down and gagged until the end of this meeting.”“Tie us down?”“And gag you, ” Joseph cheerfully reminded them.

Our attitude toward others reveals our genuine attitude toward God.

Democracy, in its best state, is but the politics of Bedlam; while kept chained, its thoughts are frantic, but when it breaks loose, it kills the keeper, fires the building, and perishes.

If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don't give me Ayn Rand.

Never, never rest contented with any circle of ideas, but always be certain that a wider one is still possible.

Mastery is great, but even that is not enough. You have to be able to change course without a bead of sweat, or remorse.

There is no positive law: Many things are bad by that, which otherwise were not.

It's not good for government to tell people that the world owes them a living and that things are free.