“I don’t know that you have told me where it came from.”

A small glimpse of his continuing curiosity about the provenance of objects · Letter concerning a gift of snake skin

• Curiosity
• Knowledge
• Nature

“I do not know that such a pre-natal poisoning might not affect the disposition, but I do not assert it.”

A revealing example of scientific caution in distinguishing possibility from proof · Letter to Dr Edwards

• Caution
• Knowledge
• Science

“I have always read in books rather than through them.”

Describing reading as an active search for ideas rather than a race through pages · Autobiographical Notes

• Books
• Knowledge
• Reading

“I have always read in books rather than through them, and always with more profit from the books I read in than the books I read through.”

A memorable distinction between purposeful reading and treating a book as a task to be completed · Autobiographical Notes

• Books
• Knowledge
• Reading

“Some books are edifices, to stand as they are built; some are hewn stones, ready to form a part of future edifices; some are quarries, from which stones are to be split for shaping and after use.”

A memorable metaphor for the different ways books contribute to knowledge and culture · Memoir, chapter XIII, Occupations: Methods of Work

• Books
• Knowledge
• Literature