I'm nervous ahead of every gig. I feel like running away three seconds before I'm due on stage. But I'm all right as soon as I get the mic in my hand.
Traveling is no fool's errand to him who carries his eyes and itinerary along with him.
We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.
A true teacher defends his students against his own personal influences.
That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit.
First find the man in yourself if you will inspire manliness in others.
Would Shakespeare and Raleigh have done their best, would that galaxy have shone so bright in the heavens had there been no Elizabeth on the throne?
A boy is a long time before he knows his alphabet, longer before he has learned to spell, and perhaps several years before he can read distinctly; and yet there are some people who, as soon as they get on a horse, entirely undressed and untaught, fancy that by beating and spurring they will make him a dressed horse in one morning only. I would fain ask such stupid people whether by beating a boy they would teach him to read without first showing him the alphabet? Sure, they would beat him to death, before they would make him read.
The proof of a well-trained mind is that it rejoices in which is good and grieves at the opposite.
Baby eagles can never soar under their family's wing.
I specialize in science and history, with a special emphasis on including do-it-yourself projects in the mix. My dozen or so books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. I'm also a contributing editor at Popular Science and at Make Magazine.