To succeed in science, one must doubt; to succeed in life, one must be sure.
Dieu, c'est le voile mystérieux sous lequel nous cachons notre ignorance de la cause première. God is the mysterious veil under which we hide our ignorance of the cause.
Civilization is the art of creating useless needs.
The altruism of foresters can serve as a motto for humanity in general: "We reap what we have not sown. We sow what we do not reap."
Truth is different from error in two respects: it is a little harder to prove and more difficult to admit.
La vérité est sur une courbe dont notre ésprit suit éternellement l'asymptote. Truth is on a curve whose asymptote our spirit follows eternally.
What are we doing down here? We prepare the blossoms of tomorrow. We all manure future humanity.
The paradox is the seed of truth. This germ just needs a fertile ground to flourish and bear fruit.
"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.
God is the mysterious veil under which we hide our ignorance of the cause.
Pour réussir dans la science, il faut douter; pour réussir dans la vie, il faut être sûr. To succeed in science, one must doubt; to succeed in life, one must be sure.
"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.
Truth is on a curve whose asymptote our spirit follows eternally.
Isn't this the perfect image of the noblest selflessness, and thereby presents an example and a model? It should be inspiring: like them, we are the units of a great social body, like them, we can serve and contemplate death with equanimity, subordinating our individual consciousness to collective consciousness.
