In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.

I have concluded the evident existence of God, and that my existence depends entirely on God in all the moments of my life, that I do not think that the human spirit may know anything with greater evidence and certitude.

Wonder is the first of all the passions.

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.

Let whoever can do so deceive me, he will never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I continue to think I am something.

If we possessed a thorough knowledge of all the parts of the seed of any animal (e.g. man), we could from that alone, be reasons entirely mathematical and certain, deduce the whole conformation and figure of each of its members, and, conversely if we knew several peculiarities of this conformation, we would from those deduce the nature of its seed.