Bernard 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 Fontenelle

I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist.

— 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…

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

Truth comes home to the mind so naturally, that when we learn it for the first time, it seems as though we…

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

A man finds no sweeter voice in all the world than that which chants his praise.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

In vain we shall penetrate more and more deeply the secrets of the structure of the human body, we shall not dupe…

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

I hate war, for it spoils conversation.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

Ah! si l'on o" tait les chime' res aux hommes, quel plaisir leur resterait? Oh! If man were robbed of his fantasies,…

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

I detest war; it ruins conversation

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

As astronomy is the daughter of idleness, geometry is the daughter of property.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

A true philosopher is like an elephant; he never puts the second foot down until the first one is solidly in place.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

Let us be well assured of the Matter of Fact, before we trouble our selves with enquiring into the Cause. It is…

— 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

The judgment may be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary machine is sufficient to tell the hours; but…

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

To be happy, one must have a good stomach and a bad heart.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

They will have the World to be in Large, what a Watch is in Small; which is very regular, and depends only…

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that completes the cbarm.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

A philosopher will not believe what he sees because he is too busy speculating about what he does not see.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

Neatness is a crowning grace of womanhood.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes.

— Bernard 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…

— Bernard 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…

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

It is the passions that do and undo everything.

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

Since the princes take the Earth for their own, it's fair that the philosophers reserve the sky for themselves and rule there,…

— Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle