Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also.
It seems very strange ... that in the course of the world's history so obvious an improvement should never have been adopted. ... The next generation of Britishers would be the better for having had this extra hour of daylight in their childhood.
The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value.
If it had not been for the English I should have been emperor of the East, but wherever there is water to float a ship we are sure to find them in our way.