The principal impulse by which I was directed was the earnest endeavor to comprehend the phenomena of physical objects in their general connection, and to represent nature as one great whole, moved and animated by internal forces. My intercourse with highly-gifted men early led me to discover that, without an earnest striving to attain to a knowledge of special branches of study, all attempts to give a grand and general view of the universe would be nothing more than a vain illusion. These special departments in the great domain of natural science are, moreover, capable of being reciprocally fructified by means of the appropriative forces by which they are endowed.

In order to ameliorate without commotion new institutions must be made, as it were, to rise out of those which the barbarism of centuries has consecrated. It w…

While we maintain the unity of the human species, we at the same time repel the depressing assumption of superior and inferior races of men. There are nations …

Our imagination is struck only by what is great; but the lover of natural philosophy should reflect equally on little things.

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; ref…

There is nothing more practical than a good theory.

All that we know is still infinitely less than all that still remains unknown.