Gibbon/behavior

Famous quotes containing the words gibbon and/or behavior:

    The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.
    —Edward Gibbon (1737–1794)

    He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behavior as well as by application. It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws. The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)