Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle on geometry
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle44 quotes“A work of morality, politics, criticism will be more elegant, other things being equal, if it is shaped by the hand of geometry.”
More from Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle
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.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle I shall leave the world without regret, for it hardly contains a single good listener.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle I detest war; it ruins conversation
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle The Art of Flying is but newly invented, twill improve by degrees, and in time grow perfect; then we may fly as far as the Moon.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle 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.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle It is high time for me to depart, for at my age I now begin to see things as they really are.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle An educated mind is, as it were, composed of all the minds of preceding ages.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle 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 FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle 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!
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Neatness is a crowning grace of womanhood.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Nature is never so admired as when she is understood.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle I have lived one hundred years; and I die with the consolation of never having thrown the slightest ridicule upon the smallest virtue.
Bernard le Bovier de FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle
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More on geometry
The greatest pleasure is not – say – sex or geometry. It is just understanding. And if you can get people to understand their own humanity – well, that’s the job of the writer.
William GoldingWilliam Golding No story is a straight line. The geometry of a human life is too imperfect and complex, too distorted by the laughter of time and the bewildering intricacies of fate to admit the straight line into its system of laws.
Pat ConroyPat Conroy Sire, there is no royal road to geometry.
EuclidEuclid My origami creations, in accordance with the laws of nature, require the use of geometry, science, and physics.
Akira YoshizawaAkira Yoshizawa Geometry alone is not enough to portray human desires, expressions, aspirations, joys. We need more.
Akira YoshizawaAkira Yoshizawa Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres.
PythagorasPythagoras The description of right lines and circles, upon which geometry is founded, belongs to mechanics. Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but requires them to be drawn.
Isaac NewtonIsaac Newton