To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or distinction than that connected with advances in science.
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier...
It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.
We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.
If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought.
If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.