Nothing can be made of nothing; he who has laid up no material can produce no combination.

The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

Invention strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come from nothing.