The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. read more

The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

What we know is not much; what we do not know is immense.

What we know is not much; what we do not know is immense.

A little while and I will be gone from among you, when I cannot
tell. From no where we came, read more

A little while and I will be gone from among you, when I cannot
tell. From no where we came, into nowhere we go. What is life? Itis a flash of a firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo inthe winter time. It is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of read more

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

Better is the sinner who hath thoughts about God, than the saint who hath only the show of sanctity.

Better is the sinner who hath thoughts about God, than the saint who hath only the show of sanctity.

I am still progressing.

I am still progressing.

Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.

Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round read more

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round as the moon, to stare up.
I want to be looking at them when they come
Picking among the dumb minerals, the roots.
I see them already-the pale, star-distance faces.
Now they are nothing, they are not even babies.
I imagine them without fathers or mothers, like the first gods.
They will wonder if I was important.

I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a read more

I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a boy playing upon the seashore and diverting myself and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay before me all undiscovered.