It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions.

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.