A work of morality, politics, criticism will be more elegant, other things being equal, if it is shaped by the hand of geometry.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLEPeople almost always do great things without knowing how to do them, and are quite surprised to have done them.
More Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Quotes
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It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes.
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Our sun enlightens the planets that belong to him; why may not every fixed star also have planets to which they give light?
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A well-cultivated mind is, so to speak, made up of all the minds of preceding ages; it is only one single mind which has been educated during all this time.
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It is the passions that do and undo everything.
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They will have the World to be in Large, what a Watch is in Small; which is very regular, and depends only upon the just disposing of the several Parts of the Movement.
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Leibniz never married; he had considered it at the age of fifty; but the person he had in mind asked for time to reflect. This gave Leibniz time to reflect, too, and so he never married.
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A philospher sees the Earth as a large planet, travelling through the heavens, covered with fools
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To be happy, one must have a good stomach and a bad heart.
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People almost always do great things without knowing how to do them, and are quite surprised to have done them.
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Let us be well assured of the Matter of Fact, before we trouble our selves with enquiring into the Cause. It is true, that this Method is too slow for the greatest part of Mankind, who run naturally to the Cause, and pass over the Truth of the Matter of Fact.
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Women react differently: a French woman who sees herself betrayed by her husband will kill his mistress; an Italian will kill her husband; a Spaniard will kill both; and a German will kill herself.
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I have lived one hundred years; and I die with the consolation of never having thrown the slightest ridicule upon the smallest virtue.
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An educated mind is, as it were, composed of all the minds of preceding ages.
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The judgment may be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary machine is sufficient to tell the hours; but the most elaborate alone can point out the minutes and seconds, and distinguish the smallest differences of time.
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A true philosopher is like an elephant; he never puts the second foot down until the first one is solidly in place.
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Les vrais philosophes sont comme les e le phants, qui en marchant ne posent jamais le second pied a’ terre que le premier ne soit bien affermi. True philosophers are like elephants, who when walking never placetheir second footontheground untilthefirst is steady.
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If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.
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It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much.
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Nothing can be more destructive to ambition, and the passion for conquest, than the true system of astronomy. What a poor thing is even the whole globe in comparison of the infinite extent of nature!
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It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that completes the cbarm.
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There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch.
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I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist.
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Nature intends that, at fixed periods, men should succeed each other by the instrumentality of death. We shall never outwit Nature; we shall die as usual.
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A philosopher will not believe what he sees because he is too busy speculating about what he does not see.
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It is high time for me to depart, for at my age I now begin to see things as they really are.
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Modesty in women has two special advantages,–it enhances beauty and veils uncomeliness.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE