“If there be anything in a remark often to be met with, namely that there is, in the genius of the people of this country, a peculiar aptitude for mechanic improvements, it would operate as a forcible reason for giving opportunities to the exercise of that species of talent, by the propagation of manufactures.”

On War (1832), Book 2

Source: Social Problems (1883), Ch. 21 : Conclusion
Context: The great work of the present for every man, and every organization of men, who would improve social conditions, is the work of education — the propagation of ideas. It is only as it aids this that anything else can avail. And in this work every one who can think may aid — first by forming clear ideas himself, and then by endeavoring to arouse the thought of those with whom he comes in contact.

La génie n'est utre chose qu'une grande aptitude à la patience.
Narrated by Herault de Séchelles ( La visite à Buffon, ou Voyage à Montbard http://www.atramenta.net/lire/voyage-a-montbard/3508, 1790), when speaking of a talk with Buffon in 1785. (Not in Buffon's works.) Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Source: The Methods of Ethics (1874), Book 4, chapter 5, section 3 (7th ed., 1907)

Source: Catch-22

On the Road (1886)

A Time for Silence

Source: Heir to the Empire

Speech at Birkbeck College (20 March 1924), quoted in On England, and Other Addresses (1926), pp. 143-144.
1924