23 Quotes by John Herschel

What God sends is welcome.

No doubt the testimony of natural reason, on whatever exercised, must, of necessity, stop short of those truths which it is the object of revelation to make known; still it places the existence and personal attributes of the Deity on such grounds as to render doubts absurd and atheism ridiculous.

The novel, in its best form, I regard as one of the most powerful engines of civilization ever invented.

The barrier has begun to yield.

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

The besetting evil of our age is the temptation to squander and dilute thought on a thousand different lines of inquiry.

There is a gentle, but perfectly irresistible coercion in a habit of reading well directed, over the whole tenor of a man’s character and conduct, which is not the less effectual because it works insensibly, and because it is really the last thing he dreams of.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific enquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustible source of pure and exciting contemplations.