Quotes from John Herschel

Man is constituted as a speculative being; he contemplates the world, and the objects around him, not with a passive indifferent eye, but as a system disposed with order and design.

There is a pinciple in the heart of music which has yet to be discovered.

...Nature builds up her refined and invisible architecture, with a delicacy eluding our conception, yet with a symmetry and beauty which we are never weary of admiring.

To the natural philosopher, there is no natural object unimportant or trifling. From the least of Nature's works he may learn the greatest lessons.

What God sends is welcome.

God knows how ardently I wish I had ten lives.

Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.

Self-respect,--the corner-stone of all virtue.

Every student who enters upon a scientific pursuit, especially if at a somewhat advanced period of life, will find not only that he has much to learn, but much also to unlearn.

Speculations apparently the most unprofitable have almost invariably been those from which the greatest practical applications have emanated.

All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more strongly the truths come from on high, and contained in the sacred writings.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe