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.

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

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.

Nothing can be more destructive to ambition, and the passion for conquest, than the true system of astronomy. What a poor thing is even the whole globe in comparison of the infinite extent of nature!

There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch.

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

Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future.