Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of erro….

Astronomy is ... the only progressive Science which the ancient world produced..

A man really and practically looking onwards to an immortal life, on whatever grounds, exhibits to us the human soul in an enobled attitude..

Gold and iron at the present day, as in ancient times, are the rulers of the world; and the great events in the world of mineral art are not the disc….

Prudence supposes the value of the end to be assumed, and refers only to the adaptation of the means. It is the relation of right means for given end….

We cannot observe external things without some degree of Thought; nor can we reflect upon our Thoughts, without being influenced in the course of our….

In art, truth is a means to an end; in science, it is the only end..

The hypotheses we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this: our hypotheses ought to foretell phe….

We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a scientist. [The first use of the word.].

Geometry in every proposition speaks a language which experience never dares to utter; and indeed of which she but halfway comprehends the meaning..

There is a mask of theory over the whole face of nature..

Conscience is the reason employed about questions of right and wrong..

The catastrophist constructs theories, the uniformitarian demolishes them..

The system becomes more coherent as it is further extended. The elements which we require for explaining a new class of facts are already contained i….

The main object of the work was to present such a survey of the advances already made in physical knowledge, and of the mode in which they have been ….

According to the technical language of old writers, a thing and its qualities are described as subject and attributes; and thus a man's faculties and….

The earlier truths are not expelled but absorbed, not contradicted but extended; and the history of each science, which may thus appear like a succes….

Every man has obligations which belong to his station. Duties extend beyond obligations, and direct the affections, desires, and intentions, as well ….

Fundamental ideas are not a consequence of experience, but a result of the particular constitution and activity of the mind, which is independent of ….

Man is the interpreter of nature, science the right interpretation..

In order that the facts obtained by observation and experiment may be capable of being used in furtherance of our exact and solid knowledge, they mus….