To despise theory is to have the excessively vain pretension to do without knowing what one does, and to speak without knowing what one says.

I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist.

It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes.

If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.

I have lived one hundred years; and I die with the consolation of never having thrown the slightest ridicule upon the smallest virtue.

Leibniz never married; he had considered it at the age of fifty; but the person he had in mind asked for time to reflect. This gave Leibniz time to reflect, too, and so he never married.

The judgment may be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary machine is sufficient to tell the hours; but the most elaborate alone can point out the minutes and seconds, and distinguish the smallest differences of time.