Percival Quotes

Imagination is as vital to any advance in science as learning and precision are essential for starting points.

Green sods are all their monument; and yet it tells A nobler history than pillared piles, Or the eternal pyramids.

That Mars is inhabited by beings of some sort or other we may consider as certain as it is uncertain what these beings may be.

Roses bloom, and then they wither; Cheeks are bright, then fade and die; Shapes of light are wafted hither, Then, like visions, hurry by.

Formulae are the anaesthetics of thought, not its stimulants and to make any one think is far better worth while than cramming him with ill-considered, and therefore indigestible, learning.

Are physical forces alone at work there, or has evolution begotten something more complex, something not akin to what we know on Earth as life? It is in this that lies the peculiar interest of Mars.

War is a survival among us from savage times and affects now chiefly the boyish and unthinking element of the nation.

The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness.

Now when we think that each of these stars is probably the centre of a solar system grander than our own, we cannot seriously take ourselves to be the only minds in it all.

He made enemies as naturally as soap makes suds.

It's okay to love something bigger than yourself without fearing it. Anything worth loving is bigger than we are anyway.

There is nothing but death Our affections can sever, And till life's latest breath Love shall bind us for ever.

The whole object of science is to synthesize, and so simplify; and did we but know the uttermost of a subject we could make it singularly clear.

Consciousness is the ultimate Reality; compared with it, all else is illusion.

For you it is possible to do anything; the only thing impossible for you to do is to do wrong, inasmuch as you are knowledge and justice and love.

I am one who finds within me a nobility that spurns the idle pratings of the great, and their mean boasts of what their fathers were, while they themselves are fools effeminate.

The thundering voice that wrings, in one dark, damning moment, crimes of years!

Thought can wing its way Swifter than lightning-flashes or the beam That hastens on the pinions of the morn.

In Eastern lands they talk in flowers, And they tell in a garland their loves and cares; Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers, On its leaves a mystic language bears.

Read. Always read. No one can take that away from you.

A metaphor cannot be paraphrased

The recollection of one upward hour Hath more in it to tranquilize and cheer The darkness of despondency, than years Of gayety and pleasure.

There are moments of life that we never forget, which brighten and brighten as time steals away.

O rose! the sweetest blossom, Of spring the fairest flower, O rose! the joy of heaven. The god of love, with roses His yellow locks adorning, Dances with the hours and graces.

Why will I bury you? So that one day I might disturb your grave.

How awful is that hour when con, science stings.

Happy the life, that in a peaceful stream, Obscure, unnoticed through the vale has flow'd; The heart that ne'er was charm'd by fortune's gleam Is ever sweet contentment's blest abode.

Sweet flower, thou tellest how hearts as pure and tender as thy leaf, as low and humble as thy stem, will surely know the joy that peace imparts.

This land needed a sword forged in the hottest of fires to regain what was lost...and you are that sword.

The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit and the waves dance to the music of its melodies and sparkle in its brightness.

The physically fit can enjoy their vices.

It was frustrating and exhausting to gather bits of disconnected information without understanding how it all fitted together.