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Buffon Quotes

Browse 13 quotes about Buffon.

Buffon Quotes

“I had artistic classical training, and when you learn the classics for so many years, you might gain audacity, power and confidence to subvert everything. I am like the originals buffoons. I love the rules because I can break them.”

ArtConfidenceArtistsRulesArtistrySubversiveConfidentConfidence QuotesAudacityArtists QuotesArtistic ExpressionArtists LifeSubversionConfidence And AttitudeBuffoonsBreaking RulesClassical EducationBuffonBreaking The RulesBuffooneryBuffoon
Author:Nuno Roque
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“The careful observations and the acute reasonings of the Italian geologists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; the speculations of Leibnitz in the 'Protogaea' and of Buffon in his 'Théorie de la Terre;' the sober and profound reasonings of Hutton, in the latter part of the eighteenth century; all these tended to show that the fabric of the earth itself implied the continuance of processes of natural causation for a period of time as great, in relation to human history, as the distances of the heavenly bodies from us are, in relation to terrestrial standards of measurement. The abyss of time began to loom as large as the abyss of space. And this revelation to sight and touch, of a link here and a link there of a practically infinite chain of natural causes and effects, prepared the way, as perhaps nothing else has done, for the modern form of the ancient theory of evolution.”

ScienceTimeSpaceHistoryEvolutionCarefulObservationReasoningAbyssNaturalismCausationLeibnizBuffonHuttonJames HuttonGeologistsGottfried LeibnizGottfried Wilhelm LeibnizComte De BuffonGeorges Louis LeclercGottfried W Leibniz
Book:Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century, The
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“"Le génie n'est qu'une longue patience", a dit Buffon. Cela est bien incomplet. Le génie, c'est l'impatience dans les idées et la patience dans les faits : une imagination vive et un jugement calme; quelque chose comme un liquide en ébullition dans un vase qui reste toujours froid. "Genius is just enduring patience," said Buffon. This is far from complete. Genius is impatience in ideas and patience with the facts: a lively imagination and a calm judgment, rather like a liquid boiling in a cup that remains cold.”

SaidIdeasFactsImaginationColdGeniusJudgmentRemainsEndureCalmCupsImpatienceLiquidLivelyBoilingVasesBuffon
Author:Leo Errera
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“Speaking one day to Monsieur de Buffon, on the present ardor of chemical inquiry, he affected to consider chemistry but as cookery, and to place the toils of the laboratory on the footing with those of the kitchen. I think it, on the contrary, among the most useful of sciences, and big with future discoveries for the utility and safety of the human race.”

ThinkingHumansBigsScienceRaceOne DayDiscoverySafetyContraryHuman RaceKitchenAffectedChemistryChemicalsToilInquiryUtilityLaboratoryCookeryArdorBuffon
Book:Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts
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“Buffon, who, with all his theoretical ingenuity and extraordinary eloquence, I suspect had little actual information in the science on which he wrote so admirably For instance, he tells us that the cow sheds her horns every two years; a most palpable error. ... It is wonderful that Buffon who lived so much in the country at his noble seat should have fallen into such a blunder I suppose he has confounded the cow with the deer.”

ShouldWritingYearsLittlesTwoCountryScienceWonderfulInformationTheoryShould HaveErrorsExtraordinaryNobleInstanceFallenSeatsTwo YearsSuspectsCowsShedTheoreticalHornsEloquenceIngenuityDeerBlundersBuffon
Book:The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order; a Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition Never Before Published: the Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great-Britain, for Near Half a Century During which He Flourished
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“We may affirm of Mr. Buffon, that which has been said of the chemists of old; though he may have failed in attaining his principal aim, of establishing a theory, yet he has brought together such a multitude of facts relative to the history of the earth, and the nature of its fossil productions, that curiosity finds ample compensation, even while it feels the want of conviction.”

WantFeelsMayHas BeensSaidFactsEarthTogetherScienceNatureNaturalTheoryAimCuriosityProductionsConvictionRelativePrincipalMultitudesFossilsCompensationChemistBuffon
Book:A history of the earth and animated nature, with an intr. view of the animal kingdom tr. from the Fr. of baron Cuvier, notes [and] a life of the author by W. Irving
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