That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet contested this claim. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

One of our forefathers must have read a forbidden book.

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws.