Great Throughts Treasury

"Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned- not to see what is not."

"We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us; and the more we gain, the more is our desire. The more we see, the more we are capable of seeing."

"Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow."

"Small aids to individuals, large aid to masses."

"The greatest object in educating is to give a right habit of study."

"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all logic, nor all mathematics, but is somewhat beauty and poetry."

"There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness."

"There is this great danger in student life. Now, we rest all upon what Socrates said, or what Copernicus taught; how can we dispute authority which has come down to us, all established, for ages? We must at least question it; we cannot accept anything as granted, beyond the first mathematical formulae. Question everything else."

"As a general rule, people disappoint you as you know them."

"Question everything. "

"The phrase ‘popular science’ has in itself a touch of absurdity. That knowledge which is popular is not scientific."

"I was born of only ordinary capacity, but of extraordinary persistency."

"Altogether, St. Louis is a growing place, and the West has a large hand and a strong grasp."

"A young sailor boy came to see me to-day. It pleases me to have these lads seek me on their return from their first voyage, and tell me how much they have learned about navigation."

"Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe."

"Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God."

"I am always the better for open-air breathing, and was certainly meant for the wandering life of the Indian."

"I had, early in life, a love for staging, but it is fast dying out. Nine hours over a rough road are enough to root out the most passionate love of that kind."

"I am just through with a summer, and a summer is to me always a trying ordeal."

"I have just gone over my comet computations again, and it is humiliating to perceive how very little more I know than I did seven years ago when I first did this kind of work."

"Do you know of any case in which a boys' college has offered a Professorship to a woman? Until you do, it is absurd to say that the highest learning is within the reach of American women."

"I have never been in any country where they did not do something better than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think, catch some inspiration from heights above our own."

"I am just learning to notice the different colors of the stars, and already begin to have a new enjoyment."

"I know I shall be called heterodox, and that unseen lightning flashes and unheard thunderbolts will be playing around my head, when I say that women will never be profound students in any other department except music while they give four hours a day to the practice of music."

"I have worn myself thin trying to find out about this comet, and I know very little now in the matter."

"I saw, in looking over Cooper, elements of a comet of 1825 which resemble what I get out for this, from my own observations, but I cannot rely upon my own."

"I was born, for instance, incapable of appreciating music."

"I was a little doubtful about the propriety of going to the Mammoth Cave without a gentleman escort, but if two ladies travel alone they must have the courage of men."

"I made observations for three hours last night, and am almost ill to-day from fatigue; still I have worked all day, trying to reduce the places, and mean to work hard again to-night."

"I would as soon put a girl alone into a closet to meditate as give her only the society of her needle."

"It is sad to see a woman sacrificing the ties of the affections even to do good."

"People have to learn sometimes not only how much the heart, but how much the head, can bear."

"No woman should say, 'I am but a woman!' But a woman! What more can you ask to be? Born a woman ? born with the average brain of humanity ? born with more than the average heart ? if you are mortal, what higher destiny could you have? No matter where you are nor what you are, you are a power."

"Scientific investigations, pushed on and on, will reveal new ways in which God works, and bring us deeper revelations of the wholly unknown."

"That knowledge which is popular is not scientific."

"The best that can be said of my life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can be said of me is that I have not pretended to what I was not."

"The eye that directs a needle in the delicate meshes of embroidery will equally well bisect a star with the spider web of the micrometer."

"The phrase "popular science" has in itself a touch of absurdity. That knowledge which is popular is not scientific."

"The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us."

"There is a God, and he is good. I try to increase my trust in this, my only article of creed."

"The love of one's own sex is precious, for it is neither provoked by vanity nor retained by flattery; it is genuine and sincere."

"The Southern character is opposed to haste. Safety is of more worth than speed, and there is no hurry."

"To read a book, to think it over, and to write out notes is a useful exercise; a book which will not repay some hard thought is not worth publishing."

"Truth or myth, it is only for me to know. Come with me into the rich texture of Bizco's kingdom."

"We especially need imagination in science."

"We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge all around us and the more we gain, the more is our desire."

"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry. There will come with the greater love of science greater love to one another. Living more nearly to Nature is living farther from the world and from its follies, but nearer to the world's people; it is to be of them, with them, and for them, and especially for their improvement. We cannot see how impartially Nature gives of her riches to all, without loving all, and helping all; and if we cannot learn through Nature's laws the certainty of spiritual truths, we can at least learn to promote spiritual growth while we are together, and live in a trusting hope of a greater growth in the future."

"We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing."

"We travel to learn; and I have never been in any country where they did not do something better than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think, catch some inspiration from heights above our own."

"Women, more than men, are bound by tradition and authority. What the father, the brother, the doctor, and the minister have said has been received undoubtingly. Until women throw off this reverence for authority they will not develop."