We must always skim over pleasures. They are like marshy lands that we must travel nimbly, hardly daring to put down our feet.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLEA true philosopher is like an elephant; he never puts the second foot down until the first one is solidly in place.
More Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Quotes
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As astronomy is the daughter of idleness, geometry is the daughter of property.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE -
I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE -
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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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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If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.
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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 FONTENELLE -
Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future.
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I detest war; it ruins conversation
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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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To despise theory is to have the excessively vain pretension to do without knowing what one does, and to speak without knowing what one says.
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A philospher sees the Earth as a large planet, travelling through the heavens, covered with fools
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Behold a universe so immense that I am lost in it. I no longer know where I am. I am just nothing at all. Our world is terrifying in its insignificance.
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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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To be happy, one must have a good stomach and a bad heart.
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If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened it.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE