Invention Consists In The Capacity Of Seizing

I Saw And Heard Of None Like Me. Was I Then A Monster, A Blot Upon The Earth, From Which All Men Fled, And Whom All Men Disowned?

Curiosity, Earnest Research To Learn The Hidden Laws Of Nature, Gladness Akin To Rapture, As They Unfolded To Me, Are Among The Earliest Sensations I Can Remember.

Standing Armies Can Never Consist Of Resolute Robust Men; They May Be Well-disciplined Machines, But They Will Seldom Contain Men Under The Influence Of Strong Passions, Or With Very Vigorous Faculties.

Nothing Is More Painful To The Human Mind Than, After The Feelings Have Been Worked Up By A Quick Succession Of Events, The Dead Calmness Of Inaction And Certainty Which Follows And Deprives The Soul Both Of Hope And Fear.

If The Study To Which You Apply Yourself Has A Tendency To Weaken Your Affections And To Destroy Your Taste For Those Simple Pleasures In Which No Alloy Can Possibly Mix, Then That Study Is Certainly Unlawful, That Is To Say, Not Befitting The Human Mind.