“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

“A textual critic engaged upon his business is not at all like Newton investigating the motions of the planets: he is much more like a dog hunting for fleas.”

A comic metaphor for the practical and opportunistic nature of textual criticism · Lecture, The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism, 1921

• Criticism
• Humour
• Metaphor

“So long as the mind of man is what it is, it will continue to exult in advancing on the unknown throughout the infinite field of the universe.”

Celebrating humanity's enduring impulse to explore the unknown · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892

• Discovery
• Mind
• Wonder