I have spent much time in the ...

I have spent much time in the study of the abstract sciences; but the paucity of persons with whom you can communicate on such subjects disgusted me with them. When I began to study man, I saw that these abstract sciences are not suited to him, and that in diving into them, I wandered farther from my real object than those who knew them not, and I forgave them for not having attended to these things. I expected then, however, that I should find some companions in the study of man, since it was so specifically a duty. I was in error. There are fewer students of man than of geometry.
I have spent much time in the study of the abstract sciences; but the paucity of persons with whom you can communicate on such subjects disgusted me with them. When I began to study man, I saw that these abstract sciences are not suited to him, and that in diving into them, I wandered farther from my real object than those who knew them not, and I forgave them for not having attended to these things. I expected then, however, that I should find some companions in the study of man, since it was so specifically a duty. I was in error. There are fewer students of man than of geometry.

Quotes from the same author

We are all something, but none of us are everything.
The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.
Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.
Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.
The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.