It is the passions that do and undo everything.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLEThe 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.
More Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Quotes
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Modesty in women has two special advantages,–it enhances beauty and veils uncomeliness.
BERNARD 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!
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I hate war, for it spoils 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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Neatness is a crowning grace of womanhood.
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An educated mind is, as it were, composed of all the minds of preceding ages.
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As astronomy is the daughter of idleness, geometry is the daughter of property.
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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.
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Mathematicians 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.
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It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much.
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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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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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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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A philosopher will not believe what he sees because he is too busy speculating about what he does not see.
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There are three things I have loved but never understood. Art, music and women.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE