The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.

There are writers, and there are readers who want something more. They want to get at the grist of life.

Exploration by real people inspires us.

Miss Lucy's called the bell o' St. Ogg's, they say: that's a cur'ous word,' observed Mr. Pullet, on whom the mysteries of etymology sometimes fell with an oppressive weight.

I went into science a great deal myself at one time; but I saw it would not do. It leads to everything; you can let nothing alone.

It is ever the trial of the scrupulous explorer to be saluted with the impatient scorn of chatterers who attempt only the smallest achievements, being indeed equipped for no other. And it were well if all such could be admonished to discriminate judgments of which the true subject-matter lies entirely beyond their reach, from those of which the elements may be compassed by a narrow and superficial survey.

It's a pity that nobody has found an exploding black hole. If they had, I would have won a Nobel prize.

The human mind inherently seeks intelligible order. Thus the conviction that such an order exists to be found is a crucial assumption.

The world is not yet exhaused; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.

I verily judge, we know not how much may be had in this life: there is yet something beyond all we see, that seeking would light upon.

The best letters of our time are precisely those that can never be published.

The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order symmetry and limitations; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.