. . .I have never had my admiration of any man increased by reading his life.
            Letter to Alexander Dallas Bache, July 31, 1855, in Henry Papers, vol. 9, p. 271.

I do not hold to the custom of transmitting unpleasant names because they have belonged to a relative. We need no names to keep in remembrance those we honor.
            Letter to James Henry, October 30, 1838, in Henry Papers, vol. 4, p. 145.

The results of the labors of the mind, which form the basis of all human improvement, ought not to be appropriated without remuneration, any more than the labors of the hand or of the machine.
            Smithsonian Annual Report for 1871, p. 23.

If we act conscientiously and faithfully, endeavouring before God to do our duty, the result in the long run cannot be otherwise than good.
            Letter to Harriet Henry, May 3, 1847, in Henry Papers, vol. 7, p. 98.

. . .my feelings as a man are constantly in antagonism to my duty as secretary of the [Smithsonian] Institution. I am constantly called upon to decide upon, not what ought to be given, but what can be.
            Letter to Asa Gray, October 14, 1851, in Henry Papers, vol. 8, p. 247.

Statesmen and merchants however ignore political economy. Its maxims do not accord with the personal advance of the one nor the adventurous spirit of the other.
            Letter to Eben N. Horsford, September 30, 1857, in Henry Papers, vol. 9, pp. 462-463.

. . .if you succeed in awakening a single undeveloped mind to the importance of knowledge you may console yourself with the reflection that you have not lived in vain.
            Letter to [William Leslie Harris], August 1846, in Henry Papers, vol. 6, p. 489.

. . .he has not lived in vain who leaves behind him as his successor a child better educated morally, intellectually, and physically than himself.
            "The Philosophy of Education," presidential address to the fourth annual session of the American Association for the Advancement of Education, 1854, in Arthur Molella et al., eds., A Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry (Washington, D.C., 1980), p. 74.

Narrow minds indeed think nothing of importance but their own favourite pursuit & what suits not with their taste is folly & abserdity [sic]. But more liberal views exclude no branch of science or literature for they all contribute by various means to sweaten [sic], to adorn, & to embelish [sic] life.
            Inaugural address to the Albany Academy, September 11, 1826, in Henry Papers, vol. 1, p. 179.

Nothing, in my opinion, can be more preposterous or mischievous than the proposition so frequently advanced that the child should be taught nothing but what it can fully comprehend, and the endeavor in accordance with this to invert the order of nature, and attempt to impart those things which cannot be taught at an early age, and to neglect those which at this period of life the mind is well adapted to receive. By this mode we may indeed produce remarkably intelligent children who will become remarkably feeble men.
            "The Philosophy of Education," presidential address to the fourth annual session of the American Association for the Advancement of Education, 1854, in Arthur Molella et al., eds., A Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry (Washington, D.C., 1980), p. 83.

I am a sensitive man, perhaps nervously so, and though I have not been insensible to the value of true fame, and have striven to connect my name with the history of the science of this country, I have shrunk from notoriety and have neither coveted nor sought popular applause.
            Presidential address to the American Association for the Advancement of Education, August 1853, Proceedings of the Third Session of the American Association for the Advancement of Education (Newark, N.J., 1854), p. 28.

I doubt the propriety of referring to the life and labors of a living man, in the way of illustration or example. We know not what is before us, and though I now it is true, occupy a conspicuous position, I know not how long it may continue. I desire, therefore, that all that may be said about me may be reserved till I am dead.
            Presidential address to the American Association for the Advancement of Education, August 1853, Proceedings of the Third Session of the American Association for the Advancement of Education (Newark, N.J., 1854), p. 28.

The desire for present notoriety or for even being remembered by our children has something in it nearly connected with self; but the wish for a far more extended reputation, the desire that our name should pass to after times and be admired by those whose applause is won by no personal recollection, that we may stamp indelibly on the age in which we live some mark of our individual existence is the ambition of a noble mind and far excels that longing which is bounded by the principle of self, however expanded. It is far different from that passion for notoriety with which it is too frequently confounded.
            Remarks at the Grave of Joseph Priestley, [July 1874], in Arthur P. Molella, et al., eds., A Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry (Washington, D.C., 1980), p. 118.

There is a remarkably loose state of morality relating to all transactions with the government or with establishments connected with it. The property of the Government is everybody's property, and everyone considers himself entitled to a share; in the quaint language of the Balance, "the public is a goose and he is a fool who does not pluck a feather."
            Henry Locked Book, December 2, 1854, in Henry Papers, vol. 9, p. 159.

. . .a person in Paris who cannot speak this language is in a worse condition than one born deaf and dumb since he has not the advantage of an intimate knowledge of the language of signes [sic].
            Letter to Harriet Henry, [May 26-June 16], 1837, in Henry Papers, vol. 3, p. 354.

I do not put much trust in particular genius. Give me a mind of general powers not deficent [sic] in any one faculty and we have the elements of a great mind.
            Introductory remarks for natural philosophy course, [May 28? 1846], in Henry Papers, vol. 6, p. 429.

God has created man in his own intellectual image, and graciously permitted him to study His modes of operation, and rewards his industry in this line by giving him powers and instruments which affect in the highest degree his material welfare.
            Remarks at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the American Museum of Natural History (New York), June 2, 1874, in Arthur P. Molella, et al., eds., A Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry (Washington, D.C., 1980), p. 115.

It is a moral obligation that the present should acknowledge its indebtedness to the past, that it should transmit the knowledge which it has received, purified and increased, as a richer inheritance to the future.
            Remarks at the Grave of Joseph Priestley, [July 1874], in Arthur P. Molella, et al., eds., A Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry (Washington, D.C., 1980), p. 123.

There is no need of a window in the breast to see the passing thoughts and acting motives of men.
            Letter to Alexander Dallas Bache, September 13, 1851, in Henry Papers, vol. 8, p. 231.

What ever is worth possessing must be purchased at the expense of labour. The Gods have placed a price on that which is valuable.
            Introductory remarks for natural philosophy course, [May 28? 1846], in Henry Papers, vol. 6, p. 430.

How short the space between the two cardinal points of an earthly career! the point of birth and that of death and yet what a universe of wonders is presented to us in our rapid flight through this space.
            Letter to Joseph Patterson, April 12, 1878, Henry Papers, vol. 10, p. 650.

We are so liable to go astray so beset with adverse influences and so little able to control our own acts, or to direct our own course that the end of a will [sic] spent life may justly be compared to the successful termination of a voyage, after having been exposed to the dangers of a stormy Ocean. Our friends have cause to rejoice when we have safely reached the desired haven rather than regret that the perilous voyage was not of longer duration.
            Letter to John Torrey, January 4, 1856, in Henry Papers, vol. 9, p. 303.

We know not what is in store for us but of this we may be assured that we cannot escape the general lot of humanity--that difficulties and tryals [sic] await us but the anticipation of these should not prevent us from enjoying the goods which providence has bestowed on us at the present and when the evil day may come we can live over the past, in memory, and draw a lasting supply of plesant [sic] reflections from this source.
            Letter to Harriet Henry, May 3, 1847, in Henry Papers, vol. 7, p. 98.

. . .but every think [sic] in life is uncertain, and when we think we are standing on the firmest earth the hiden [sic] fire may be burning beneath us. The sailor boy on the bending mast often lives through the storm while the landsman in fancied security is crushd [sic] with his falling house.
            Letter to Harriet Henry, February 3, 1847, in Henry Papers, vol. 7, p. 38.

How uncertain are all things of Earth we live amoung [sic] the dying and yet do not realize as we should do that we are mortal. . . . The auful [sic] change awaits us all. Let the fact be constantly before our minds not to lessen our interest in the affairs of this life but to render us less anxious as to the events of this world whether they turn out for our advantage or not or how long we may be permitted to remain on Earth. Let us put our trust more fully than ever in Him who will order all things for the best who put full reliance on Him.
            Letter to Harriet Henry, January 20-21, 1847, in Henry Papers, vol. 7, pp. 20-21.

We are called upon to educate ourselves as it were for eternity and an important part of the duty assigned to us for this purpose is that which relates to our connection with the affairs of this life. So far therefore from being paralized [sic] in our labours by a realizing sense of the certainty of death and the shortness of life let us rouse ourselves to more strenuous exertions. Let us labor like servants who are certainly and shortly to give an account of their stewardship diligently seeking to know our duty and faithfully and fearlessly strive to do it; constantly mindful of the fact that nothing but purity of heart is acceptable to God and that we are constantly in his presence and known to him are all our thoughs [sic] and intentions however they may be hid from our fellow men.
            Letter to Alexander Dallas Bache, October 20, 1846, in Henry Papers, vol. 6, p. 525.

Money is power which should not be hoarded but applied to useful purposes not expended in procuring luxures [sic] not in self indulgence but in the advancement of wisdom, virtue and [hence] human developement [sic].
            Undated note, Box 28, Folder 6a, "Unsorted," Joseph Henry Collection, Record Unit 7001, Smithsonian Institution Archives.

It is a sacred duty which this country owes to the civilized world to collect everything relative to the history, the manners and customs, the physical peculiarities, and, in short, all that may tend to illustrate the character and history of the original inhabitants of North America.
            Smithsonian Annual Report for 1857, p. 36.

Politics in our country, and under any circumstances, is a dangerous and unstable business, and the less we are connected with it the better. When once a man becomes imbued with the spirit of party politics, he becomes unfit for the sober duties of life.
            Letter to [James Henry], April 1842, in Henry Papers, vol. 5, p. 161.

The great object of the Bible is the revelation of moral, not physical truth, and that of Physical Science the discovery of physical law, not moral precepts.
            Lecture on Geology and Revelation, ca. 1840s, in Arthur P. Molella, et al., eds., A Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry (Washington, D.C., 1980), p. 27.

Again when we pass from the phenomena of life to those of mental and moral emotions, we enter a region of still more absolute mystery, in which our light becomes darkness and we are obliged to bow in profound humiliation, acknowledging that the highest flights of science can only reach the threshold of the temple of faith.
            On the Importance of the Cultivation of Science: Letter to the Committee of Arrangements of the Farewell Banquet to Professor Tyndall [February-April 1873], in Arthur P. Molella, et al., eds., A Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry (Washington, D.C., 1980), p. 109.

If I have been successful, I have owed it to this one principle, enthusiastic labor and constant and devoted application to a single object. In pursuing this object, I have sunk the man, and it is by following this course that whatever success I have met with has been obtained.
            Presidential address to the American Association for the Advancement of Education, August 1853, Proceedings of the Third Session of the American Association for the Advancement of Education (Newark, N.J., 1854), p. 28.

. . .next to political meetings I have the most sovereign contempt for the business of soldier playing. . . . The adage "In time of peace prepare for war" was of some importance just after the revolution when we might justly dred [sic] the attack of a foreign foe but now when we are safe from any sudden invasion and when war is not quite as fashonable [sic] as it was the adage does more injury than good. If we are well prepaired [sic] for war there will be a great temptation to rush into it and indeed had it not been for the delapidated [sic] state of our forts a few years ago we might have been precipitated into an unnecssary [sic] war with England or France.
            Letter to James Henry, July 30 [-August 2], 1844, in Henry Papers, vol. 6, p. 126.

. . .I would that it were possible to convert the officers of the armies of the earth into scientific investigators; to employ them in the art of prolonging life, rather than that of shortening it.
            Letter to J. H. Lefroy, May 16, 1856, in Henry Papers, vol. 9, p. 368.

How strange is the state of feeling which now pervades the public mind. Tender females, who would shrink from the sight of the death of a chicken, and who will shed tears over the ills of an imaginary hero of romance, can now rejoice at the slaughter of thousands of gallant men, and the suffering and death of hundreds of helpless women and children.
            Henry Locked Book, June 1, 1862, in Henry Papers, vol. 10, p. 271.

The art of destroying life, as well as that of preserving it, calls for the application of scientific principles, and the institution of scientific experiments on a scale of magnitude which would never be attempted in time of peace.
            Smithsonian Annual Report for 1862, p. 13.

Washington is a pandamonium [sic] in which is congregated all the personifications of all the evil passions of the human character.
            Letter to Asa Gray, [April 26, 1853], in Henry Papers, vol. 8, p. 438.

The loss of time and effective life to which all are exposed who occupy a position of notoriety in the city of Washington, is truly lamentable; and where this is enhanced by facility of access to gratify mere curiosity, the evil becomes scarcely endurable. Progress in business, under such circumstances, can only be made by an encroachment on the hours usually allotted to rest, and that, too, at the expense of wasted energies and shortened days.
            Smithsonian Annual Report for 1852, p. 14.

I have learned to know by experience in Washington that there is a wide difference betwen [sic] what ought to be done and what can be done.
            Letter to Benjamin Silliman, Sr., December 2, 1850, in Henry Papers, vol. 8, p. 131.

Of all places in the country Washington is I think the worst in which to persue [sic] scientific investigations. The constant drudgery and anxiety of an office unfits a man for profound and continuous thought; and as he is under the restraint of the sentiment of the dominant party he finally looses [sic] his manly independance [sic] and that love of truth which constitutes an honest man.
            Letter to Henry Wurtz, July 26, 1861, Henry Wurtz Papers, New York Public Library.

A man may be able to speak 50 languages and at the same time be unable to utter a wise remark of his own in any of these languages.
            Introductory remarks for natural philosophy course, [May 28? 1846], in Henry Papers, vol. 6, p. 427.

Knowledge to be converted into wisdom must be made our own.
            Introductory remarks for natural philosophy course, [May 28? 1846], in Henry Papers, vol. 6, p. 427.