Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon

"In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our worlds, to all that we love."

"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower drives my green age."

"To speak is to be partly right; to stay silent is to avoid being wrong."

"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."

"The style is the man himself."

"Genius is patience."

"Nature does not proceed by leaps."

"To understand the world, one must understand nature."

"The most noble conquest is that of one's self."

"Time is the substance of which I am made."

"Idleness is the greatest luxury."

"A great man and a great mind are produced by the combination of nature and cultivation."

"The diversity of facts is not compatible with a single explanation."

"One cannot imagine how much reading is necessary to acquire any considerable degree of information."

"The secret of the sciences is to know facts; the secret of talent is to know how to use them."

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit."

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers we can feel responsibility."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind."

"Everything that is not nature is art."

"The more one loves, the more suffering one experiences."

"To live is to choose; but to choose well, one must know oneself."

"Perfection does not exist; you can always find something to complain about if you let yourself."

"Nothing is more dangerous than to be too smart."

"The hand is the visible part of the intellect."

"Magnificence consists not in costliness of taste but in the abundance of order."

"Our true duty is not to discover new lands but to discover new eyes."

"The most beautiful things in life cannot be seen or touched; they must be felt with the heart."

"Passion without judgment is like a ship without a rudder."

"A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes."

"One does not become truly cultured until one has read a great deal."