Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Quotes (5 quotes)

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Histoire Naturelle

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

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Famous Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Quotes

“[F]rom the earliest periods of time [man] alone has divided the empire of the world between him and Nature. …[H]e rather enjoys than possesses, and it is by constant and perpetual activity and vigilance that he preserves his advantage, for if those are neglected every thing languishes, changes, and returns to the absolute dominion of Nature. She resumes her power, destroys the operations of man; envelopes with moss and dust his most pompous monuments, and in the progress of time entirely effaces them, leaving man to regret having lost by his negligence what his ancestors had acquired by their industry. Those periods in which man loses his empire, those ages in which every thing valuable perishes, commence with war and are completed by famine and depopulation. Although the strength of man depends solely upon the union of numbers, and his happiness is derived from peace, he is, nevertheless, so regardless of his own comforts as to take up arms and to fight, which are never-failing sources of ruin and misery. Incited by insatiable avarice, or blind ambition, which is still more insatiable, he becomes callous to the feelings of humanity; regardless of his own welfare, his whole thoughts turn upon the destruction of his own species, which he soon accomplishes. The days of blood and carnage over, and the intoxicating fumes of glory dispelled, he beholds, with a melancholy eye, the earth desolated, the arts buried, nations dispersed, an enfeebled people, the ruins of his own happiness, and the loss of his real power.”

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Buffon's Natural History (1797) Vol. 10, pp. 340-341 https://books.google.com/books?id=respAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA340, an English translation of Histoire Naturelle (1749-1804).

“Man alone consumes more flesh than all the other animals together devour; he is, then, the greatest destroyer; and this more from custom than necessity. Instead of using with moderation the blessings which are offered him, instead of disposing of them with equity, instead of increasing them in proportion as he destroys, the rich man places all his glory in consuming, in one day, at his table, as much as would be necessary to support many families: he equally abuses both animals and his fellow-creatures, some of whom remain starving and languishing in misery, and labour only to satisfy his immoderate appetite, and more insatiable vanity, and who, by destroying others through wantonness, destroys himself by excess. Nevertheless, man, like some other animals, might live on vegetables.”

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon book Histoire Naturelle

Histoire Naturelle (1753), trans. J. S. Barr, London: H. D. Symonds, 1797, vol. V, pp. 209 https://books.google.it/books?id=9QpTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA209-210.

“Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius.”

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

As quoted in New Cyclopædia of Illustrations (1870) by Elon Foster, p. 492

“Genius is nothing else than a great aptitude for patience.”

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

La génie n'est utre chose qu'une grande aptitude à la patience.
Narrated by Herault de Séchelles ( La visite à Buffon, ou Voyage à Montbard http://www.atramenta.net/lire/voyage-a-montbard/3508, 1790), when speaking of a talk with Buffon in 1785. (Not in Buffon's works.) Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“The style is the man.”

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon book Histoire Naturelle

Le style c'est l'homme.
Discourse on taking his seat in the French Academie (Aug. 25, 1753). Le style c'est l'homme même. Œuvres Completes (1778). Histoire Naturelle (1769). Le style est de l'homme. Discours sur Style.