The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.

Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there.

I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.

How gloriously legible are the constellations of the heavens!

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. 

There are truths that prove their discoverers witless.

What one man can invent another can discover.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Appearances are a glimpse of the obscure.

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

When they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”

True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.

A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.