Speculations? I have none. I am resting on certainties.

It may be a weed instead of a fish that, after all my labour, I at last pull up.

Who would not have been laughed at if he had said in 1800 that metals could be extracted from their ores by electricity or that portraits could be drawn by chemistry.

Physicist is both to my mouth and ears so awkward that I think I shall never use it. The equivalent of three separate sounds of "I" in one word is too much.

... and what good is a baby?

There is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle

A centre of excellence is, by definition, a place where second class people may perform first class work.

Work, finish, publish.

Why will people go astray when they have this blessed Book to guide them?

I can at any moment convert my time into money, but I do not require more of the latter than is sufficient for necessary purposes.

Nothing is ever too good to be true.

I shall be with Christ, and that is enough.

The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly.

Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds.

I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk about it.

I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.

There’s nothing quite as frightening as someone who knows they are right.

A man who is certain he is right is almost sure to be wrong.

Lectures which really teach will never be popular; lectures which are popular will never really teach.