Inspiration is the impact of a fact on a well-prepared mind

These are the living springs of great thoughts and great actions. Everything grows clear in the reflections from the Infinite.

The more I know, the more nearly is my faith that of the Breton peasant. Could I but know all I would have the faith of a Breton peasant woman.

After death, life reappears in a different form and with different laws. It is inscribed in the laws of the permanence of life on the surface of the earth and everything that has been a plant and an animal will be destroyed and transformed into a gaseous, volatile and mineral substance.

I give them experiments and they respond with speeches.

As in the experimental sciences, truth cannot be distinguished from error as long as firm principles have not been established through the rigorous observation of facts.

One does not ask of one who suffers: What is your country and what is your religion? One merely says: You suffer, that is enough for me.