“Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.”

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

When a woman comes to her class, she does not employ her time in making herself look more advantageously what she really is, but endeavours to be as much another creature as she possibly can.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.

Mankind are more indebted to industry than ingenuity; the gods set up their favors at a price, and industry is the purchaser.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagances, and a perpetual train of vanities which pass through both.

That aids and strengthens virtue where it meets her And imitates her actions where she is not: It is not to be sported with.

Honour’s a sacred tie, the law of kings, The noble mind’s distinguishing perfection

Honor’s a fine imaginary notion, that draws in raw and unexperienced men to real mischiefs.

Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.

This not in mortals to command success, but we’ll do more, Sempronius, we’ll deserve it.

One of the most important but one of the most difficult things for a powerful mind is to be its own master.

In private conversation between intimate friends, the wisest men very often talk like the weakest : for indeed the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

Silence is sometimes more significant and sublime than the most noble and most expressive eloquence, and is on many occasions the indication of a great mind.

Honour’s a sacred tie, the law of kings, The noble mind’s distinguishing perfection

Life is sometimes life and sometimes only a drama, and one must learn to distinguish t’other from which . . .

This personal freedom to think and feel and speak authentically and to be conscious of so doing is the quality that distinguishes us as human.

Training distinguishes an army from an armed mob.

Children are nowhere taught, in any systematic way, to distinguish true from false, or meaningful from meaningless, statements. Why is this so? Because their elders, even in the democratic countries, do not want them to be given this kind of education.

A person is not merely a single subject distinguished from all the others. It is especially a being to which is attributed a relative autonomy in relation to the environment with which it is most immediately in contact.

The best physician is he who can distinguish the possible from the impossible.

I have always thought it a great privilege to have as my colleague in the Palit Chair of Chemistry such a distinguished pioneer in scientific research and education in Bengal as Sir Prafulla Ray.