Quotessence
Home / Authors / Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Books
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Books

Naturalist

Related Quotes

“In Ireland, there are the same fossils, the same shells and the same sea bodies, as appear in America, and some of them are found in no other part of Europe.”

BodyAmericaFoundSeaEuropeIrelandShellsFossils
Book:A Natural History, General and Particular: Containing the History and Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, the Brute Creation, Vegetables, Minerals, Etc. Etc
Create image

“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. These definitions rest upon simple, but abstract, suppositions, and all truths in this category are only constructed, but abstract, consequences of these definitions ... Physical truths, to the contrary, are in no way arbitrary, and do not depend on us.”

WayFirstsKindTruthOrderSimpleDependsConsequenceMathematicsDefinitionsContraryMathematicalAbstractCategoriesArbitrarySupposition
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Create image

“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 creatures of Nature, perpetual creatures, as old and as permanent as it. In order to judge it better, we no longer consider the species as a collection or as a series of similar individuals, but as a whole independent of number, independent of time, a whole always living, always the same, a whole which has been counted as one in the works of creation, and which, as a consequence, makes only a unity in Nature.”

Has BeensStillsWholeMightScienceOrderUniverseIndividualNatureNumbersCreationJudgingThousandCreaturesHundredConsequenceIndependentSeriesUnitySpeciesPermanentCollectionsPerpetual
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Create image

“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 certain determinate number of species, but it seems that it has thrown out all at once a world of relative and non-relative creatures, an infinity of harmonic and contrary combinations and a perpetuity of destructions and replacements. What idea of power is not given us by this spectacle! What feeling of respect for its Author is not inspired in us by this view of the universe!”

WorldGivingDoeHas BeensIdeasFeelingsHandsSeemsScienceCertainOrderUniverseGivenNatureNaturalViewsNumbersExistenceCreaturesDestructionSpeciesInspiredCreatorContraryCombinationThrownInfinityRelativeReplacements
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Create image

“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 would seem quite inconceivable. This power of producing its likeness that resides in animals and plants, this form of unity, always subsisting and appearing eternal, this procreative virtue which is perpetually expressed without ever being destroyed, is for us a mystery which, it seems, we will never be able to fathom.”

SeemsAbleFormScienceIndividualNatureNaturalAnimalVirtueMysteryEternalPlantUnitySpeciesDestroyedRenewalSuccessionAppearingDurationFathom
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Create image

“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 Nature. Philosophy describes and depicts Nature. Poetry paints and embellishes it. It also paints men, it aggrandizes them, it exaggerates them, it creates heroes and gods. History only depicts man, and paints him such as he is.”

MenPhilosophyScienceFoundNatureSubjectsObjectsHeroPaintSublimeMan And Nature
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Create image

“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 of the Universe, in which our globe, like a speck of abandoned matter, escapes our vision and is no longer an object worthy of our regard. In order to fix our vision, it is necessary to take it such as it is, to observe well all parts of it, and by indications infer from the present to the past.”

WellsMatterPastScienceOrderTurnsUniverseVisionPossibilityObjectsRegardRefuseWorthyObservationVainHistorianAbandonedGlobesSpeculationTurn-onIndicationActualitySpecks
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Create image

“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 means of comparison. That which is absolutely incomparable is wholly incomprehensible. God is the only example that we could give here. He cannot be comprehended, because he cannot be compared. But all which is susceptible of comparison, everything that we can perceive by different aspects, all that we can consider relatively, can always be judged according to our knowledge.”

KnowsGivingMeanLittlesDifferentGodScienceEasyKnowledgeExampleAspectObservationPerceiveAcquireComparisonJudgedSusceptibleIncomparable
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Create image

“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 thing, because this thing would be everything. Nature is not a creature, because this creature would be God. But one can consider it as an immense vital power, which encompasses all, which animates all, and which, subordinated to the power of the first Being, has begun to act only by his order, and still acts only by his concourse or consent ... Time, space and matter are its means, the universe its object, motion and life its goal.”

FirstsMeanStillsMatterGodWould BeLawScienceOrderUniverseGoalNatureSpaceExistenceObjectsCreaturesCreatorImmenseConsentSuccession
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Create image