Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature.

When fortune comes seize her in front firmly, because behind she is bald.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the Earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee...gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.

Oh! how foul a thing, that we should see the tongue of one animal in the guts of another.

A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements.

The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.

Nothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.

The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things.

There is no higher or lower knowledge, but one only, flowing out of experimentation.

Life without love, is no life at all.

Being willing is not enough. We must do.

In the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the losses of thy old age.

I have discovered that a screw-shaped device such as this, if it is well made from starched linen, will rise in the air if turned quickly.

Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work least, for they are thinking out inventions.

Supreme happiness will be the greatest cause of misery, and the perfection of wisdom the occasion of folly.

Perspective is a most subtle discovery in mathematical studies, for by means of lines it causes to appear distant that which is near, and large that which is small.

The fame of the rich man dies with him; the fame of the treasure, and not of the man who possessed it, remains.

The most beautiful words of love are told in silence for a look.

Inaction saps the vigor of the mind.