The unknown is the largest need of the intellect.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

How gloriously legible are the constellations of the heavens!

Science is a cemetery of dead ideas.

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

New things are always ugly.

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable desire to seek the truth.

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

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

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

There are truths that prove their discoverers witless.

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

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