Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.

Books are the ever burning lamps of accumulated wisdom.

Reading is equivalent to thinking 

with someone else's head 

instead of with one's own.

The spirit of resistance to government 

is so valuable 

on certain occasions 

that I wish it to be
always kept alive.

There is nothing 

with which it is so dangerous to take liberties 

as liberty itself.

They know enough 

who know how to learn.

Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day.

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, 

for they often endure long; 

but false views, 

if supported by some evidence, 

do little harm, 

for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.

He who closes his ears 

to the views of others 

shows little confidence 

in the integrity of his own views.

There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. 

It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. 

Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.

Taste is a result of a thousand distastes.

Everybody gets so much information all day long 

that they lose their common sense.

Doubt everything 

or believe everything: 

these are two equally convenient strategies. 

With either 

we dispense with the need for reflection.

Science is imagination 

in the service of 

the verifiable truth.