Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.

So engrained in the human heart is the desire to believe that some people really do know what they say they know, and can thus save them from the trouble of thinking for themselves, that in a short time would-be philosophers and faddists became more powerful than ever, and gradually led their countrymen to accept all those absurd views of life, some account of which I have given in my earlier chapters. Indeed I can see no hope for the Erewhonians till they have got to understand that reason uncorrected by instinct is as bad as instinct uncorrected by reason.

In mathematics he was greater Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater; For he, by geometric scale, Could take the size of pots of ale.

And wisely tell what hour o' th' day The clock does strike by Algebra.

The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.