To be happy, one must have a good stomach and a bad heart.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLEMathematicians are like lovers. Grant a mathematician the least principle, and he will draw from it a consequence which you must also grant him, and from this consequence another.
More Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Quotes
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It is the passions that do and undo everything.
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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 detest war; it ruins conversation
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It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that completes the cbarm.
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Modesty in women has two special advantages,–it enhances beauty and veils uncomeliness.
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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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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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It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes.
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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.
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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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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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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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If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.
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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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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.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE