Bernard Palissy

“For I have seen with my own eyes that the shells of which I have spoken are generated in the earth in which they are found.”

“The earth has no veins, but it has layers.”

“My only book is heaven and earth.”

“Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.”

“I have had no other book than the heavens and the earth, which are open to all.”

“Nature is the source of all true knowledge.”

“Poverty is the greatest stimulus to invention.”

“There is no man who, having practiced any art, has not a desire to become the master of it.”

“I have been for several years in search of the potter's secrets, and I have pursued them with so much labor that I have been scorned and mocked by everyone.”

“It is a very certain thing that if a man will search for the good of his art, he will find it.”

“And thus I will prove by examples that there is no art to which a man may not attain, although he be of a poor and humble condition.”

“Experience is the mother of all things.”