Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

No one can draw more out of things, books included, than he already knows. A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access.

To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of human existence.

As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.