“Intelligence is a mere instrument of circumstances.”

“hat a feeble thing intelligence is, with its short steps, its waverings, its pacings back and forth, its disastrous retreats! Intelligence is a mere instrument of circumstances. There are people who say that intelligence must have built the universe—why, intelligence never built a steam engine! Circumstances built a steam engine. Intelligence is little more than a short foot-rule by which we measure the infinite achievements of Circumstances.”

“What a feeble thing intelligence is, with its short steps, its waverings, its pacings back and forth, its disastrous retreats! Intelligence is a mere instrument of circumstances. There are people who say that intelligence must have built the universe - why, intelligence never built a steam-engine! Circumstances built a steam-engine. Intelligence is little more than a short foot-rule by which we measure the infinite achievements of Circumstances.”

“Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise.”

“Without attempting any systematic employment of time, and carrying it out, so far as they control circumstances, most women are rather driven along by the daily occurrence of life; so that, instead of being the intelligent regulators of their own time, they are the mere sport of circumstances.”

“myself ... is merely an instrument to connect life and a myth”