Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
The Rambler, No. 150 (Sat 24 Aug 1751). http://www.yalejohnson.com/frontend/sda_viewer?n=106855 See also The Yale Book of Quotations, Samuel Johnson 3 (2006)
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
The Rambler, No. 150 (Sat 24 Aug 1751). http://www.yalejohnson.com/frontend/sda_viewer?n=106855 See also The Yale Book of Quotations, Samuel Johnson 3 (2006)
“Neither the gifts nor the blows of fortune equal those of nature.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.
“To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.”
William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
Honoré de Balzac book Séraphîta
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 2: Seraphita.
Context: If we study Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment — giving to that word its exact significance. Man does not create forces; he employs the only force that exists and which includes all others, namely Motion, the breath incomprehensible of the sovereign Maker of the universe.
“Nature gives beauty; fortune, wealth in vain.”
Edward Fairfax (1580–1635) English translator
Book XVI, stanza 65
Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)
Isaac Newton book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Preface
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
Parker Palmer (1939) American theologian
Source: Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (1999), pp. 49-50
“God gives us intelligence to uncover the wonders of nature. Without the gift, nothing is possible.”
James Clavell (1921–1994) American novelist
André Delambre
The Fly (1958)