Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon

"Liberty consists of doing what one desires."

"All knowledge begins with wonder."

"The greatest ornament of an acquaintance is truth."

"There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."

"Only a great writer can make tolerable a very long book."

"Obstacles are the raw material of achievement."

"In great matters men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small matters, as they are."

"The happiness of life depends upon the quality of the thoughts which one entertains during the day."

"Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience."

"The basis of all virtue is good sense."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the contempt of it."

"The love of study teaches us to cherish the good qualities in others, even when possessed to a degree that might excite envy."

"Nature employs only the longest threads to weave her patterns."

"Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation."

"Words are the clothing of thoughts."

"The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively by the multiplication of theories than by any sort of error."

"Health is the thing that makes you feel that now is the best time of the year."

"Science is organized knowledge."

"The development of true friendship is a slow and gradual process."

"In order to write well, one must feel deeply."

"Life is a search for meaning, and meaning is found in understanding nature."

"The greatest evil that can happen to a man is to lose the desire to improve."

"Power is not given, it is earned."

"To know one's self is to know all humanity."

"Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million."

"The extent of your consciousness expands as you evolve."

"All that we have is given to us by nature."

"True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary and nothing more."

"The mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered."

"Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things."