Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Quotes

26 quotes in 503 categories

• Let us suppose, that the Old and New worlds were formerly but one continent, and that, by a violent earthquake, the ancient Atalantis [sic] of… All
• Although the works of the Creator may be in themselves all equally perfect, the animal is, as I see it, the most complete work of… All
• I am convinced, by repeated observation, that marbles, lime-stones, chalks, marls, clays, sand, and almost all terrestrial substances, wherever situated, are full of shells and… All
• We can only penetrate the rind of the earth. Earth
• Only those works which are well-written will pass to posterity: the amount of knowledge, the uniqueness of the facts, even the novelty of the discoveries… Amount
• In general, the more one augments the number of divisions of the productions of nature, the more one approaches the truth, since in nature only… Approach
• There are several kinds of truths, and it is customary to place in the first order mathematical truths, which are, however, only truths of definition.… Abstract
• An Individual, whatever species it might be, is nothing in the Universe. A hundred, a thousand individuals are still nothing. The species are the only… Always Living
• It appears that all that can be, is. The Creator's hand does not appear to have been opened in order to give existence to a… All
• One can descend by imperceptible degree from the most perfect creature to the most shapeless matter, from the best-organised animal to the roughest mineral. Animal
• The great workman of nature is time. Great
• The greatest marvel is not in the individual. It is in the succession, in the renewal and in the duration of the species that Nature… Able
• The sublime can only be found in the great subjects. Poetry, history and philosophy all have the same object, and a very great object-Man and… All
• The cat is the only animal which accepts the comforts but rejects the bondage of domesticity. Accepting
• As historians, we refuse to allow ourselves these vain speculations which turn on possibilities that, in order to be reduced to actuality, suppose an overturning… Abandoned
• For the little that one has reflected on the origin of our knowledge, it is easy to perceive that we can acquire it only by… Absolutely
• Nature is the system of laws established by the Creator for the existence of things and for the succession of creatures. Nature is not a… Act
• The style is the man himself. Inspirational
• All the work of the crystallographers serves only to demonstrate that there is only variety everywhere where they suppose uniformity ... that in nature there… Absolute
• Style is the essence of man Essence

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