Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public and private virtue can alone lead to a p… - Edward Everett Hale

plenty of instances of the persecution of inventors, even to quite a late date. It is impossible, of course, to say how many good things were lost to the world by the pig-headedness which discouraged new inventions. It is marvellous to think what progress single men made, who had to begin almost at the beginning, and learn for themselves what every intelligent boy or girl now finds ready for him in the Cyclopædia. It is very clear that the same beginnings were made again and again by some of the early inventors. Then, what they learned had been almost forgotten. There was no careful record of their experiments, or, if any, it was in one manuscript, and that was not accessible to people trying to follow in their steps.

I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes.

Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds — all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.