The result, therefore, of this physical enquiry is that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.

There is no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.

[It] is the little causes, long continued, which are considered as bringing about the greatest changes of the earth.

In matters of science, curiosity gratified begets not indolence, but new desires.

The globe of this earth … [is] … not just a machine but also a organised body as it has a regenerative power.

Error, never can be consistent, nor can truth fail of having support from the accurate examination of every circumstance.

With such wisdom has nature ordered things in the economy of this world, that the destruction of one continent is not brought about without the renovation of the earth in the production of another.

The smallest act of compassion can save a soul, perhaps your own.

An 18th century brain, in a 21st century head.

We're just getting better at our trade, man. We know what we're doing, and the reason why is that we've spent 30 years doing it. There's nothing that can replace that.

A wise word is more rare than the green emerald, and one can find the word of wisdom even amongst the slave girls making grain.

I'm terrible in the kitchen. I was mostly raised by my mother and she could cook, so I never perfected that skill. If I had to count on my own cooking to survive, I'd probably be thinner.

Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings.

It is entirely seemly for a young man killed in battle to lie mangled by the bronze spear. In his death all things appear fair.

If I were President, I would spend the money that is spent on wars every 20 years and spend it on giving people work. Let them build roads, bridges, buildings, schools.

To my mind [ Jonathan Edwards] is an interesting figure because he is both a canonical Reformed thinker, and yet also someone that pushed the envelope in a number of key areas of theology.

I want to tell people that family violence happens to anybody, no matter how nice your house is, no matter how intelligent you are.