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.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLEI detest war; it ruins conversation
More Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Quotes
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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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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.
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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 is the passions that do and undo everything.
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Since the princes take the Earth for their own, it’s fair that the philosophers reserve the sky for themselves and rule there, but they should never permit the entry of others.
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Truth comes home to the mind so naturally, that when we learn it for the first time, it seems as though we did no more than recall it to our memory.
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As astronomy is the daughter of idleness, geometry is the daughter of property.
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There are three things I have loved but never understood. Art, music and women.
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Let us be well assured of the Matter of Fact, before we trouble our selves with enquiring into the Cause. It is true, that this Method is too slow for the greatest part of Mankind, who run naturally to the Cause, and pass over the Truth of the Matter of Fact.
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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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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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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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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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If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened it.
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I shall leave the world without regret, for it hardly contains a single good listener.
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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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Modesty in women has two special advantages,–it enhances beauty and veils uncomeliness.
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I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist.
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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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A philospher sees the Earth as a large planet, travelling through the heavens, covered with fools
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An educated mind is, as it were, composed of all the minds of preceding ages.
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In vain we shall penetrate more and more deeply the secrets of the structure of the human body, we shall not dupe nature; we shall die as usual.
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It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much.
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To be happy, one must have a good stomach and a bad heart.
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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.
BERNARD LE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE