It has never occurred to me to wish for empire or royalty, nor for the eminence of those high and commanding fortunes. My aim lies not in that direction; I love myself too well.

Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest

There are as many and innumerable degrees of wit, as there are cubits between this and heaven.

My appetite comes to me while eating.

It is a stupid presumption to go about despising and condemning as false anything that seems to us improbable; this is a common fault in those who think they have more intelligence than the crowd.

My business is only to keep myself in motion, whilst motion pleases me; I only walk for the walk's sake.

Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy; research, the progress; ignorance, the end. There is, by heavens, a strong and generous kind of ignorance that yields nothing, for honour and courage, to knowledge: an ignorance to conceive which needs no less knowledge than to conceive knowledge.