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.

To someone who could grasp the Universe from a unified standpoint the entire creation would appear as a unique truth and necessity.

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

I am worn out by the insults and vexations that this work brings down on us.

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

Just go on..and faith will soon return.

Geometry, which should only obey Physics, when united with it sometimes commands it. If it happens that the question which we wish to examine is too complicated for all the elements to be able to enter into the analytical comparison we wish to make, we separate the more inconvenient [elements], we substitute others for them, less troublesome but also less real, and we are surprised to arrive, notwithstanding a painful labour, only at a result contradicted by nature; as if after having disguised it, cut it short or altered it, a purely mechanical combination could give it back to us.