“Other desires perish in their gratification, but the desire of knowledge never.” Contrasting intellectual curiosity with appetites exhausted by satisfaction · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Desire Knowledge Learning
“Kings have long abdicated that province; and we students are come into their inheritance: it is our honour to search out the things which God has concealed.” Giving scholarship the adventurous dignity once associated with kingship · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Discovery Knowledge Wonder
“There is no rivalry between the studies of Arts and Laws and Science but the rivalry of fellow soldiers in striving which can most victoriously achieve the common end of all.” Portraying different disciplines as allies in humanity's search for knowledge · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Community Education Knowledge
“The comparative unpopularity of such learning renders it no less worthy of pursuit.” Defending specialised knowledge regardless of its popularity · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Independence Knowledge Learning
“We shall need to invent no pretexts for studying this subject or that.” Rejecting the demand that every intellectual pursuit justify itself practically · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Freedom Knowledge Learning
“The pleasures of the intellect are notoriously less vivid than either the pleasures of sense or the pleasures of the affections.” Recognising why intellectual pursuits can lose out to more immediate pleasures · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Emotion Knowledge Mind
“It is and it must in the long run be better for a man to see things as they are than to be ignorant of them.” Choosing difficult truth over comfortable ignorance · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Knowledge Truth Wisdom
“Knowledge resembles virtue in this, that it is not merely a means of procuring good, but is good in itself simply.” Defending knowledge as intrinsically rather than merely instrumentally valuable · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Knowledge Learning Morality
“The desire of knowledge, stifle it though you may, is none the less originally born with every man.” Treating curiosity as an innate element of human nature · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Humanity Instinct Knowledge
“Though the man does not die altogether, part of him dies, part of him starves to death.” Describing the loss caused when a natural hunger for knowledge goes unfed · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Growth Knowledge Life
“The man, worse luck, does not starve to death.” Dryly lamenting that intellectual starvation is less visibly destructive than physical hunger · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Education Humour Knowledge
“While the partisans of Science define the end of education as the useful, the partisans of the Humanities define it, more sublimely, as the good and the beautiful.” Contrasting utilitarian and humanistic ideals of education · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Beauty Education Knowledge
“The true aim of Science is something other than utility.” Rejecting the idea that knowledge is justified only by practical usefulness · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Knowledge Learning Science
“The partisans of Science define the aim of learning to be utility.” Introducing his challenge to purely utilitarian accounts of education · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Education Knowledge Science
“Every exercise of our faculties, says Aristotle, has some good for its aim.” Opening his argument by connecting learning with the pursuit of human good · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Knowledge Learning Life
“Patriotism has a great name as a virtue, but in the sphere of intellect it is an unmitigated nuisance.” Rejecting national loyalty when it interferes with impartial scholarship · Lecture, The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism, 1921 Knowledge Principle Truth
“Textual criticism is a science, and, since it comprises recension and emendation, it is also an art.” Balancing systematic scholarship with the need for individual judgement · Lecture, The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism, 1921 Art Criticism Knowledge
“The sum of things to be known is inexhaustible, and however long we read we shall never come to the end of our story-book.” Evoking knowledge as an endless source of discovery · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Knowledge Reading Wonder
“The pleasure of discovery differs from other pleasures in this, that it is shadowed by no fear of satiety on the one hand or of frustration on the other.” Celebrating discovery as a pleasure capable of continual renewal · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Discovery Joy Knowledge
“The pursuit of knowledge, like the pursuit of righteousness, is part of man's duty to himself.” Making intellectual growth a matter of personal duty · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Duty Growth Knowledge
“Let a man acquire knowledge not because it is useful or ornamental, but because it is knowledge, and therefore good for man to acquire.” Defending study for its intrinsic rather than instrumental value · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Education Knowledge Learning
“Curiosity, the desire to know things as they are, is a craving no less native to the being of man than the craving for food and drink.” Presenting curiosity as a fundamental human appetite · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Discovery Humanity Knowledge
“The acquisition of knowledge needs no such justification: its true sanction is a much simpler affair, and inherent in itself.” Defending learning as valuable independently of practical usefulness · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Education Knowledge Learning
“The complexity of the universe is infinite, and the days of a man's life are threescore years and ten.” Contrasting limitless knowledge with the brevity of human life · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892 Knowledge Life Time
