Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes.

It is a great shame; most of our words are misused tools / which often still smell of the mud in which previous owners / desecrated them.

Non cogitant, ergo non sunt.

The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.

The construction of the universe is certainly very much easier to explain than is that of the plant.

Cautiousness in judgment is nowadays to be recommended to each and every one: if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers the harvest we reaped would be sufficient.

A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectible and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.