Thus metaphysics and mathematics are, among all the sciences that belong to reason, those in which imagination has the greatest role. I beg pardon of those delicate spirits who are detractors of mathematics for saying this . . . . The imagination in a mathematician who creates makes no less difference than in a poet who invents. . . . Of all the great men of antiquity, Archimedes may be the one who most deserves to be placed beside Homer.

In England it was enough that Newton was the greatest mathematican of his century; in France he would have been expected to be agreeable too.

Gaming is the destruction of all decorum; the prince forgets at it his dignity, and the lady her modesty.

Music that paints nothing is only noise.

The true system of the World has been recognized, developed and perfected...Everything has been discussed and analysed, or at least mentioned.

High office, is like a pyramid; only two kinds of animals reach the summit — reptiles and eagles.

There are only two kinds of certain knowledge: Awareness of our own existence and the truths of mathematics.