Simon Newcomb

“The world in general has learned to mock at the idea of a flying machine.”

“We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy.”

“A discoverer of a law of nature has a property in his discovery.”

“The demonstration that no possible combination of known substances, known forms of machinery and known forms of force can be united in a practical machine by which man shall fly long distances through the air, seems to the writer as complete as it is possible for the demonstration of any physical fact to be.”

“The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.”

“There is no more striking contrast between the civilized and the uncivilized man than that the former is always looking forward and the latter is always looking back.”