Non saprei meglio terminare le nostre conversazioni che esprimendo il desiderio che possiate nella vostra esistenza meritare d’essere comparati ad una candela; che possiate com’essa brillare qual fiamma per coloro che vi circondano, che possiate in tutte le vostre azioni emulare la bellezza del lucignolo, adempiendo con onore ed efficacia i vostri doveri verso i vostri simili.

As when on some secluded branch in forest far and wide sits perched an owl, who, full of self-conceit and self-created wisdom, explains, comments, condemns, ordains and order things not understood, yet full of importance still holds forth to stocks and stones around – so sits and scribbles Mike.

No matter what you look at, if you look at it closely enough, you are involved in the entire universe.

Do not refer to your toy-books, and say you have seen that before. Answer me rather, if I ask you, have you understood it before?

Physicist is both to my mouth and ears so awkward that I think I shall never use it. The equivalent of three separate sounds of “I” in one word is too much.

The Bible, and it alone, with nothing added to it nor taken away from it by man, is the sole and sufficient guide for each individual, at all times and in all circumstances.

There is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.

I am busy just now again on Electro-Magnetism and think I have got hold of a good thing but can’t say; it may be a weed instead of a fish that after all my labour I may at last pull up.

It is on record that when a young aspirant asked Faraday the secret of his success as a scientific investigator, he replied, ‘The secret is comprised in three words- Work, Finish, Publish.’

I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.