They Who Depend Upon Manifest Observations Will

Their Vain Presumption Of Knowing All Can Take Beginning Solely From Their Never Having Known Anything; For If One Has But Once Experienced The Perfect Knowledge Of One Thing, And Truly Tasted What It Is To Know, He Shall Perceive That Of Infinite Other Conclusions He Understands Not So Much As One.

I Cannot But Be Astonished That Sarsi Should Persist In Trying To Prove By Means Of Witnesses Something That I May See For Myself At Any Time By Means Of Experiment. Witnesses Are Examined In Doutbful Matters Which Are Past And Transient, Not In Those Which Are Actual And Present. A Judge Must Seek By Means Of Witnesses To Determine Whether Peter Injured John Last Night, But Not Whether John Was Injured, Since The Judge Can See That For Himself.

The Grand Duke [of Tuscany] ...after Observing The Medicaean Plants Several Times With Me ... Has Now Invited Me To Attach Myself To Him With The Annual Salary Of One Thousand Florins, And With The Title Of Philosopher And Principal Mathematicial To His Highness; Without The Duties Of Office To Perform, But With The Most Complete Leisure; So That I Can Complete My Treatises.

The Theologians Also Should Not Be Irritated. For If They Find That This Opinion Is False, Then They Would Be Free To Condemn It; And If They Discover That It Is True, They Ought To Thank Those Who Have Opened The Way To Finding The True Sense Of The Scriptures And Who Have Prevented Them From Falling Into The Grave Scandal Of Condemning A True Proposition.

Being Infinitely Amazed, So Do I Give Thanks To God, Who Has Been Pleased To Make Me The First Observer Of Marvelous Things, Unrevealed To Bygone Ages.