Robert Boyle

I am not so much concerned to know what is created, as what is uncreated.

I am not so much concerned to know what is dependent, as what is independent.

I am not so much concerned to know what is mutable, as what is immutable.

I am not so much concerned to know what is imperfect, as what is perfect.

I am not so much concerned to know what is evil, as what is good.

I am not so much concerned to know what is false, as what is true.

I am not so much concerned to know what is error, as what is truth.

I am not so much concerned to know what is darkness, as what is light.

I am not so much concerned to know what is ignorance, as what is knowledge.

I now, and then, gave myself the liberty to play the young philosopher, and to consider, whether the phenomena, I had observed, might be explained by any other hypothesis, than that of the peripatetic schools.

And to prevent mistakes, I must advertize you, that I now mean by elements, as those chymists that speak plainest do by their principles, certain primitive and simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the ingredients of which all those called perfectly mixt bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved.

There is no more certain way to arrive at a knowledge of the works of God, than to study His word, and His works; and to compare the one with the other.

It is my intent to beget a good understanding between the chymists and the mechanical philosophers who have hitherto been too little acquainted with one another's learning.

The universe is a great piece of clockwork.

I shall not dare to think myself a true naturalist till my skill can make my garden yield me herbs without seeds.

The power of God is not to be limited to the capacities of our understandings.

The air is a confused aggregate of effluviums from such differing bodies, that, though it be for the most part invisible, yet it is capable of containing multitudes of minor corpuscles.

I am apt to think that in the great business of the world's original, the holy scriptures were not intended to be philosophical tracts.

He that perfectly knows the nature of one thing, knows thereby the nature of all things.

We must not measure the infinite wisdom of God by our narrow conceptions.