There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch..

L'univers?je l'en estime plus depuis que je sais qu'il ressemble a' une montre; il est surprenant que l'ordre de la nature, tout admirable qu'il es….

It is the passions that do and undo everything..

I shall leave the world without regret, for it hardly contains a single good listener..

It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that completes the cbarm..

The Art of Flying is but newly invented, twill improve by degrees, and in time grow perfect; then we may fly as far as the Moon..

If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it..

We must always skim over pleasures. They are like marshy lands that we must travel nimbly, hardly daring to put down our feet..

An educated mind is, as it were, composed of all the minds of preceding ages..

Les vrais philosophes sont comme les e le phants, qui en marchant ne posent jamais le second pied a' terre que le premier ne soit bien affermi. T….

Leibniz never married; he had considered it at the age of fifty; but the person he had in mind asked for time to reflect. This gave Leibniz time to r….

There are three things I have loved but never understood. Art, music and women..

I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist..

To despise theory is to have the excessively vain pretension to do without knowing what one does, and to speak without knowing what one says..

A philospher sees the Earth as a large planet, travelling through the heavens, covered with fools.

Let us be well assured of the Matter of Fact, before we trouble our selves with enquiring into the Cause. It is true, that this Method is too slow fo….

I have lived one hundred years; and I die with the consolation of never having thrown the slightest ridicule upon the smallest virtue..

It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much..

It is high time for me to depart, for at my age I now begin to see things as they really are..

A philosopher will not believe what he sees because he is too busy speculating about what he does not see..

Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future..