There are three things I have loved but never understood. Art, music and women.

Nature is never so admired as when she is understood.

A well-cultivated mind is, so to speak, made up of all the minds of preceding ages; it is only one single mind which has been educated during all this time.

If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened it.

A true philosopher is like an elephant; he never puts the second foot down until the first one is solidly in place.

Mathematicians are like lovers. Grant a mathematician the least principle, and he will draw from it a consequence which you must also grant him, and from this consequence another.

In vain we shall penetrate more and more deeply the secrets of the structure of the human body, we shall not dupe nature; we shall die as usual.