Men born in hot countries love the night because it refreshes them and have a horror of light because it burns them.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

If a man has a tent made of linen of which the apertures have all been stopped up, and be it twelve bracchia across (over twenty-five feet) and twelve in depth, he will be able to throw himself down from any height without sustaining injury. [His concept of the parachute.]

Good writing comes from good talent.

He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.

The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.

Study me, reader, if you delight in me, because on very few occasions shall I return to the world, and because the patience for this profession is found in very few, and only in those who wish to compose things anew. Come, oh men, to see the miracles that such studies will disclose to nature.