He has Van Gogh's ear for music.

Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure.

There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined.

Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporter's gallery yonder, there sat a fourth estate more important far than they all.

I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood so cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratched withal. I'll touch my point With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, It may be death.

Not a flower But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain, Of his unrivall'd pencil.

We trust our secrets to our friends, but they escape from us in love.

Dame Nature gave him comeliness and health, And Fortune gave him wealth.

Be thankful for problems. If they were less difficult, someone with less ability might have your job.

No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone.

Trust on and think To-morrow will repay; To-morrow's falser than the former day; Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blest With some new Joys, cuts off what we possest.

There will be vice as long as there are men.

Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began.

The primal duties shine aloft, like stars; The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless Are scattered at the feet of Man, like flowers.

To isolate mathematics from the practical demands of the sciences is to invite the sterility of a cow shut away from the bulls.

Trifles make perfection--and perfection is no trifle.

If we do not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us.

Goodbye. I am leaving because I am bored.

To strive with an equal is dangerous; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, degrading.

The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to remount first principles, and to take nobody's word about them.