"Nature is not a goddess, but a machine."

"I have often observed that those who are most unwilling to acknowledge their errors, are generally the most in the wrong."

"I have always endeavored to be a faithful interpreter of nature, and not a presumptuous dictator."

"I have always been of the opinion, that the best way to discover the secrets of nature, is to interrogate her by experiments."

"I have often wished that I had lived in an age when philosophy was more free and less tied to the authority of the ancients."