“Among all forms of mistake, prophecy is the most gratuitous.”

“A medical man likes to make psychological observations, and sometimes in the pursuit of such studies is too easily tempted into momentous prophecy which life and death easily set at nought.”

“We are all of us imaginative in some form or other, for images are the brood of desire.”

“Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.”

“When the animals entered the Ark in pairs, one may imagine that allied species made much private remark on each other, and were tempted to think that so many forms feeding on the same store of fodder were eminently superfluous, as tending to diminish the rations....The same sort of temptation befell the Christian Carnivora who formed Peter Featherstone's funeral procession; most of them having their minds bent on a limited store which each would have liked to get the most of. The long-recognized blood-relations and connexions by marriage made already a goodly number, which, multiplied by possibilities, presented a fine range for jealous conjecture and pathetic hopefulness.”

“The wit of a family is usually best received among strangers.”

“Power of generalizing gives men so much the superiority in mistake over the dumb animals.”