“Reading is a mighty engine, beside which steam and electricity sink into insignificance.”

“The steam engine has done much more for science than science has done for the steam engine.”

“There is a force more powerful than steam and electricity: the will.”

“I imagine horses in the engine, their manes flying, their breaths steaming, their nostrils flaring as they gallop.”

“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.”