All Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Quotes
- 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… Ambition
- As astronomy is the daughter of idleness, geometry is the daughter of property. Astronomy
- They will have the World to be in Large, what a Watch is in Small; which is very regular, and depends only upon the just… Depends
- 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… Assured
- Nature is never so admired as when she is understood. Admired
- If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it. All
- It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes. All
- I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist. Apart
- It is high time for me to depart, for at my age I now begin to see things as they really are. Age
- A work of morality, politics, criticism will be more elegant, other things being equal, if it is shaped by the hand of geometry. Criticism
- 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… Age
- 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. Despise
- 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… Art
- 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… Age
- We must always skim over pleasures. They are like marshy lands that we must travel nimbly, hardly daring to put down our feet. Daring
- 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… Earth
- I detest war; it ruins conversation Conversation
- Our sun enlightens the planets that belong to him; why may not every fixed star also have planets to which they give light? Belong
- 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… Adultery
- If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened it. Care
- 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… Consequence
- 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… Body
- It is the passions that do and undo everything. Funny
- There are three things I have loved but never understood. Art, music and women. Art
- It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much. Expect