Henry Cavendish

“It only remains that I offer very briefly my own estimate of the character of the Philosopher. Morally it was a blank, and can be described only by a series of negations. He did not love; he did not hate; he did not hope; he did not fear; he did not worship as others do. He separated himself from his fellow men, and apparently from God. There was nothing earnest, enthusiastic, heroic, or chivalrous in his nature, and as little was there anything mean, grovelling, or ignoble. He was almost passionless.”

“It were to be wished, that this noble philosopher would communicate more of his experiments to the world, as he makes many, and with great accuracy.”

“He was the wealthiest of all scholars (savants) and probably also the most scholarly of all the wealthy.”

“By fixed air, I mean that particular species of factitious air, which is separated from alcaline substances by solution in {{w|acid}}s or by calcination and to which Dr. Black has given that name in his treatise on quicklime.”

“By factitious air, I mean in general any kind of air which is contained any in other bodies in an unelastic state, and is produced from thence by art.”

“Young people must break machines to learn how to use them; get another made!”