La Rochefoucauld §laroch_257: Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to conceal the want of ...

Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to conceal the want of mind. ["Gravity is the very essence of imposture."--Shaftesbury, Characteristics, p. 11, vol. I. "The very essence of gravity is design, and consequently deceit; a taught trick to gain credit with the world for more sense and knowledge than a man was worth, and that with all its pretensions it was no better, but often worse, than what a French wit had long ago defined it--a mysterious carriage of the body to cover the defects of the mind."--Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vol. I., chap. ii.]