It is true that the more we see some connection in what happens to us, the more we are confirmed in the opinion we have about the reality of our appearances; and it is also true that the more we examine our appearances closely, the more we find them well-sequenced, as microscopes and other aids in making experiments have shown us.

It is true that as the empty voids and the dismal wilderness belong to zero, so the spirit of God and His light belong to the all-powerful One.

There is nothing in the understanding which has not come from the senses, except the understanding itself, or the one who understands.

Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses, except the intellect itself.

The means of obtaining as much variety as possible, but with the greatest possible order... is the means of obtaining as much perfection as possible.

Music is the hidden arithmetical exercise of a mind unconscious that it is calculating.

When the origin of remote peoples goes beyond history, our languages show themselves their oldest monuments.

Perceptions which are at present insensible may grow some day: nothing is useless, and eternity provides great scope for change.

I don’t really eliminate body, but reduce it to what it is. For I show that corporeal mass, which is thought to have something over and above simple substances, is not a substance, but a phenomenon resulting from simple substances, which alone have unity and absolute reality.

I have so many ideas that may perhaps be of some use in time if others more penetrating than I go deeply into them someday and join the beauty of their minds to the labour of mine.