Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

Now do you not see that the eye embraces the beauty of the whole world? It counsels and corrects all the arts of mankind... it is the prince of mathematics, and the sciences founded on it are absolutely certain. It has measured the distances and sizes of the stars it has discovered the elements and their location... it has given birth to architecture and to perspective and to the divine art of painting.

No human investigation can claim to be scientific if it doesn't pass the test of mathematical proof.

Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.

The variety of colour in objects cannot be discerned at a great distance, excepting in those parts which are directly lighted up by the solar rays.

Nature is so delightful and abundant in its variations that among trees of the same kind there would not be found one which nearly resembles another, and not only the plants as a whole, but among their branches, leaves, and fruit, will not be found one which is precisely like another.