“A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.”

The various opinions of philosophers have scattered through the world as many plagues of the mind as Pandora’s box did those of the body; only with this difference, that they have not left hope at the bottom.

We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whosoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the choice of both.

There is no vice which mankind carries to such wild extremes as that of avarice.

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.

I love good creditable acquaintance; I love to be the worst of the company.

We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.

There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.

Everyone desires long life, not one old age.

Don’t set your wit against a child.

Many a truth is told in jest.

For to enter the palace of learning at the great gate requires an expense of time and forms, therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back-door.

Perverseness is your whole defence.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.

One thing in life is for certain, the more profoundly baffled you have been in your life, the more open your mind becomes to new ideas.

Those scientists who dislike entertaining contradictory thoughts are unlikely to enrich their science with new ideas.

A final proof of our ideas can only be obtained by detailed studies on the alterations produced in the amino acid sequence of a protein by mutations of the type discussed here.

You can talk good ideas out of existence.

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject: the details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise, thought, and perception of an individual.

Creativity has a lot to do with the main idea. Inspiration is what comes when you are dealing with the idea. But inspiration won’t invite what’s not there to begin with.

Home is, I suppose just a child’s idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.