Quotes by John Lubbock

“It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.”

“Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.”

“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”

“Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned - not to see what is not”

Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.

What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. ... In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summers day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

The whole value of solitude depends upon oneself; it may be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven of repose or a place of punishment, a heaven or a hell, as we ourselves make it.

We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.

We profit little by books we do not enjoy.

All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind.

I cannot, however, but think that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as the Happiness of Duty; for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves is a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others.

If we are ever in doubt what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.

Our duty is to believe that for which we have sufficient evidence, and to suspend our judgment when we have not.

If we succeed in giving the love of learning, the learning itself is sure to follow.

A wise system of education will at least teach us how little man yet knows, how much he has still to learn.

In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is wanting.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.

A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.