People almost always do great things without knowing how to do them, and are quite surprised to have done them.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLEThere is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch.
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 -
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.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE -
If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened 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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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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I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE -
I shall leave the world without regret, for it hardly contains a single good listener.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE -
Our sun enlightens the planets that belong to him; why may not every fixed star also have planets to which they give light?
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE -
There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch.
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I hate war, for it spoils conversation.
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It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that completes the cbarm.
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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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A philosopher will not believe what he sees because he is too busy speculating about what he does not see.
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Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future.
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A man finds no sweeter voice in all the world than that which chants his praise.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE