The Real People Of Genius

Most Expositions Of Aristotle's Doctrines, When They Have Not Been Dictated By A Spirit Of Virulent Detraction, Or Unsympathetic Indifference, Have Carefully Suppressed All, Or Nearly All, The Absurdities, And Only Retained What Seemed Plausible And Consistent. But In This Procedure Their Historical Significance Disappears.

He Who Is Ignorant Of Motion, Says Aristotle , Is Necessarily Ignorant Of All Natural Things. ...not Only Was He Entirely In The Dark Respecting The Laws, He Was Completely Wrong In His Conception Of The Nature Of Motion. ...he Thought That Every Body In Motion Naturally Tends To Rest.

The Art Of Writing Is Not, As Many Seem To Imagine, The Art Of Bringing Fine Phrases Into Rhythmical Order, But The Art Of Placing Before The Reader Intelligible Symbols Of The Thoughts And Feelings In The Writer's Mind.

Science As We Now Understand The Word Is Of Later Birth. If Its Germinal Origin May Be Traced To The Early Period When Observation, Induction, And Deduction Were First Employed, Its Birth Must Be Referred To That Comparatively Recent Period When The Mind, Rejecting The Primitive Tendency To Seek In Supernatural Agencies For An Explanation Of All External Phenomena, Endeavoured, By A Systematic Investigation Of The Phenomena Themselves To Discover Their Invariable Order And Connection.

Originality Is Independence, Not Rebellion; It Is Sincerity, Not Antagonism.