Georges-Louis Leclerc

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (Count Buffon), was one of the greatest French naturalists and a key philosopher of the Enlightenment . Born to a wealthy family, Buffon became interested in Newton's physics before turning to biology.

Buffon's life's work was a monumental encyclopedia of all that was known about the natural world, from astronomy to zoology. The first three volumes of his Histoire Naturelle were published in 1749. The work eventually grew to 44 volumes, the last of which was published after his death. Buffon's clear writing gave the encyclopedia a broad audience, and his ideas were widely discussed in the salons of Paris. Buffon's influence spread to America as well, and he corresponded with the statesmen Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Buffon was one of the first philosophers to grapple with the questions of evolution, both of Earth and of living creatures. At the time, church doctrine insisted that Earth was only six thousand years old and that each type of creature had been made independently by the Creator. Volume 1 of the Histoire proposed instead that Earth was much older and that the seven days of biblical creation could be understood as seven epochs, each many thousands of years long. Buffon was chastised by French authorities and published a recantation in volume 4.

Elsewhere in the encyclopedia, Buffon recognized the existence of change in species. He proposed that embryos were guided in their development by an "internal mold," fueled by "organic molecules," which recombine into the form of the developing organism. He thought that a change in the environment might lead to a change in the fuel molecules, and therefore cause a change in the form of the species. These ideas were advanced for their time, although they were later shown to be incorrect in their particulars. Buffon also proposed, in sharp contrast to his contemporary Carolus Linnaeus, that species are defined not by simple similarity of appearance but by reproductive fertility over time.

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Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius.

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He [man] abuses equally other animals and his own species, the rest of whom live in famine, languish in misery, and work only to satisfy the immoderate appetite and the still more insatiable vanity of this human being who, destroying others by want, destroys himself by excess.

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Only those works which are well-written will pass to posterity: the amount of knowledge, the uniqueness of the facts, even the novelty of the discoveries are no guarantees of immortality ... These things are exterior to a man but style is the man himself.

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Writing well is at one and the same time good thinking, good feeling, and good expression; it is having wit, soul, and taste, all together.

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Style is the essence of man.

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Genius is only a greater aptitude for patience.

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Only well-written works will descend to posterity. Fulness of knowledge, interesting facts, even useful inventions, are no pledge of immortality, for they may be employed by more skilful hands; they are outside the man; the style is the man himself.

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In Ireland, there are the same fossils, the same shells and the same sea bodies, as appear in America, and some of them are found in no other part of Europe.

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The discoveries that one can make with the microscope amount to very little, for one sees with the mind's eye and without the microscope the real existence of all these little beings.

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Genius is simply patience carried to the extreme.

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The cat is the only animal which accepts the comforts but rejects the bondage of domesticity.

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Those who write as they speak, even though they speak well, write badly.

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For the little that one has reflected on the origin of our knowledge, it is easy to perceive that we can acquire it only by means of comparison. That which is absolutely incomparable is wholly incomprehensible. God is the only example that we could give here. He cannot be comprehended, because he cannot be compared. But all which is susceptible of comparison, everything that we can perceive by different aspects, all that we can consider relatively, can always be judged according to our knowledge.

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Nature is the system of laws established by the Creator for the existence of things and for the succession of creatures. Nature is not a thing, because this thing would be everything. Nature is not a creature, because this creature would be God. But one can consider it as an immense vital power, which encompasses all, which animates all, and which, subordinated to the power of the first Being, has begun to act only by his order, and still acts only by his concourse or consent ... Time, space and matter are its means, the universe its object, motion and life its goal.

~ Georges-Louis Leclerc