Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon Quotes

As far as me knowing if Frank was a genius - in those days, I thought Einstein was the only genius around.

We know a thing by its opposite corollary; hot by having experienced cold; good by having decided what is bad; love by hate.

You cannot experience what you don't know. And you don't know you are in "heaven" right now because you have not experienced it.

What is called "objectivity," scientific for instance (in which I firmly believe, in a given situation) imposes itself only within a context which is extremely vast, old, firmly established, or rooted in a network of conventions ... and yet which still remains a context.

If we could all give our own definitions of God, there would be as many definitions as there are men and women.

It's always refreshing to meet someone crazier than us," I said. "We seem so normal afterward.

The circumstances of others seem good to us, while ours seem good to others.

each of us only feels the torn lining of his own coat and sees the wholeness of the other person's.

In every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.

The brave man, if he be compared with the coward, seems foolhardy; and, if with the foolhardy man, seems a coward.

To understand possible means to understand impossible.

Those whom we call ancient were really new in all things, and properly constituted the infancy of mankind.

If you comprehend, it is not God.

Of course, a sign doesn't mean anything unless you know how to interpret it.

To see, to hear, means nothing. To recognize (or not to recognize) means everything.

Beware the things of this world that can mean everything or nothing.

truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.

The eye of the intellect "sees in all objects what it brought with it the means of seeing."

Intelligence is the shadow of objective truth. How can the shadow vie with sunshine?

Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations.

Of course things you don't know about are always nicer'n things you do, same as the pertater on 'tother side of the plate is always the biggest.

Then there is the further question of what is the relationship of thinking to reality. As careful attention shows, thought itself is in an actual process of movement. That is to say, one can feel a sense of flow in the stream of consciousness not dissimilar to the sense of flow in the movement of matter in general. May not thought itself thus be a part of reality as a whole? But then, what could it mean for one part of reality to 'know' another, and to what extent would this be possible?

That which is communicated, i.e., understood, is metaphysical. The means of communication is physical.

I don't know about timeless. I actually think most of what I do is completely modern, but universally modern. Who decides what timeless even means? Are the things that we consider timeless now going to, in fact, be considered timeless in 300 years? Probably not.

Our earth is round, and, among other things, that means that you and I can hold completely different points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show stars in your window I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light, while mine, at the same moment, spreads beautiful to darkness. Still we must choose how we separately corner the circling universe of our experience. Once chosen, our cornering will determine the message of any star and darkness we encounter.