“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter."(Letter 16, 1657)”

“Reverend Fathers, my letters do not customarily follow one another so closely, nor are they usually so extensive. The little time I have had has caused both. I have made this one longer only because I have not had the leisure of making it shorter.”

“I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.”

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”

“Please forgive the long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.”

“Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.”

“I feel that it is possible that I might never have existed, for my self consists in thought; therefore I who think would never have been if my mother had been killed before I had come to life; therefore I am not a necessary being. I am not eternal or infinite either…”