[About Pierre de Fermat] It cannot be denied that he has had many exceptional ideas, and that he is a highly intelligent man. For my part, however, I have always been taught to take a broad overview of things, in order to be able to deduce from them general rules, which might be applicable elsewhere.

Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.

There is nothing more ancient than the truth.

There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another.

So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.

Instead I ought to be grateful to Him who never owed me anything for having been so generous to me, rather than think that He deprived me of those things or has taken away from me whatever He did not give me.

...it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it.