Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

We can only penetrate the rind of the earth.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Time is the great workman of Nature.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

There is nothing good in love but the physical part.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

To be and to think are one and the same for us.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Style is the essence of man

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Those who write as they speak, even though they speak well, write badly.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

The cat is the only animal which accepts the comforts but rejects the bondage of domesticity.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

The dog has no ambition, no self-interest, no desire for vengeance, no fear other than that of displeasing.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Man thinks, and at once becomes the master of the beings that do not think.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Style supposes the reunion and the exercise of all the intellectual faculties. The style is the man.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul,…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Although the works of the Creator may be in themselves all equally perfect, the animal is, as I see it, the most…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

The human mind cannot create anything. It produces nothing until having been fertilized by experience and meditation; its acquisitions are the germs…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

In Ireland, there are the same fossils, the same shells and the same sea bodies, as appear in America, and some of…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

The discoveries that one can make with the microscope amount to very little, for one sees with the mind's eye and without…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

One can descend by imperceptible degree from the most perfect creature to the most shapeless matter, from the best-organised animal to the…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

I am convinced, by repeated observation, that marbles, lime-stones, chalks, marls, clays, sand, and almost all terrestrial substances, wherever situated, are full…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Let us suppose, that the Old and New worlds were formerly but one continent, and that, by a violent earthquake, the ancient…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

There are several kinds of truths, and it is customary to place in the first order mathematical truths, which are, however, only…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

In general, the more one augments the number of divisions of the productions of nature, the more one approaches the truth, since…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Only well-written works will descend to posterity. Fulness of knowledge, interesting facts, even useful inventions, are no pledge of immortality, for they…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Let us investigate more closely this property common to animal and plant, this power of producing its likeness, this chain of successive…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

He [man] abuses equally other animals and his own species, the rest of whom live in famine, languish in misery, and work…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Only those works which are well-written will pass to posterity: the amount of knowledge, the uniqueness of the facts, even the novelty…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

It appears that all that can be, is. The Creator's hand does not appear to have been opened in order to give…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

For the little that one has reflected on the origin of our knowledge, it is easy to perceive that we can acquire…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

As historians, we refuse to allow ourselves these vain speculations which turn on possibilities that, in order to be reduced to actuality,…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Nature is the system of laws established by the Creator for the existence of things and for the succession of creatures. Nature…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

An Individual, whatever species it might be, is nothing in the Universe. A hundred, a thousand individuals are still nothing. The species…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

The greatest marvel is not in the individual. It is in the succession, in the renewal and in the duration of the…

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon