A philosopher will not believe what he sees because he is too busy speculating about what he does not see.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLELeibniz 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.
More Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Quotes
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A philospher sees the Earth as a large planet, travelling through the heavens, covered with fools
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I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist.
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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 takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes.
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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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In vain we shall penetrate more and more deeply the secrets of the structure of the human body, we shall not dupe nature; we shall die as usual.
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It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that completes the cbarm.
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We must always skim over pleasures. They are like marshy lands that we must travel nimbly, hardly daring to put down our feet.
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Truth comes home to the mind so naturally, that when we learn it for the first time, it seems as though we did no more than recall it to our memory.
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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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Since the princes take the Earth for their own, it’s fair that the philosophers reserve the sky for themselves and rule there, but they should never permit the entry of others.
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Neatness is a crowning grace of womanhood.
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I detest war; it ruins conversation
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I shall leave the world without regret, for it hardly contains a single good listener.
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Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE







