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Those who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and Man as compared with the reciters and trumpeters of the works of others, are to be considered simply as in an object in front of a mirror in comparison with its image when seen in the mirror, the one being something in itself, the other nothing: people whose debt to nature is small, for it seems only by chance that they wear human form, and but for this one might class them with the herds of beasts.

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THE NATURAL DESIRE OF GOOD MEN IS KNOWLEDGE.

I know that many will call this a useless work, and they will be those of whom that many will call this a useless work, and they will be those of whom Demetrius the words in their mouths than of the wind that came out of their hinder parts: men whose only desire is for material riches and luxury and the only true riches of the soul. For as the soul is more worthy than those of the body. And often when I see one of these men take this work in hand I wonder whether he will not put it to his nose like the ape, and ask me whether it is something to eat.
C.A.119 v.2

NATURE IS FULL OF INFINITE CAUSES WHICH WERE NEVER SET FORTH IN EXPERIENCE

When you wish to produce a result by means of an instrument do not allow yourself to complicate it by introducing many subsidiary parts but follow the briefest way possible, and do not act as those do who when they do not know how to express a thing in its own proper vocabulary proceed by a method of circumlocution and with great prolixity and confusion.
c.a. 206 v.a

Aristotle in the Third [book] of the Ethics: man is worthy of praise and blame solely in respect of such actions as it is within his power to do or to abstain from.
c.a. 289 v.c

Our judgment does not reckon in their exact and proper order things which have come to pass at different periods of time; for many things which happened many years ago will seem nearly related to the present, and many things that are recent will seem ancient, extending back to the far-off period of our youth. And so it is with the eye, with regard to distant things, which when illumined by the sun seem near to the eye, while many things which are near seem far off.
c.a. 29 v.a