Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle Quotes

But I've never yet heard anyone say that the Moon was inhabited," she replied, "except as a fantasy and a delusion."

"This may be a fantasy too," I answered. "I don't take sides in these matters except as one does in civil wars, when the uncertainty of what might happen makes one maintain contacts on the opposite side and make arrangements even with the enemy. As for me, although I see the Moon as inhabited, I still live on good terms with those who don't believe it, and I keep myself in a position where I could shift to their opinion honorably if they gained the upper hand.

Nature is never so admired as when she is understood.

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.

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

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 disposing of the several Parts of the Movement.

Modesty in women has two special advantages,
it enhances beauty and veils uncomeliness.

L'univers?je l'en estime plus depuis que je sais qu'il ressemble a' une montre; il est surprenant que l'ordre de la nature, tout admirable qu'il est, ne roule que sur des choses si simples. I have come to esteem the universe more now that I know it resembles a watch; it is surprising that the order of nature, as admirable as it is, only runs on such simple things.

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.

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.

There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch.

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.

A philospher sees the Earth as a large planet, travelling through the heavens, covered with fools

Our sun enlightens the planets that belong to him; why may not every fixed star also have planets to which they give light?

We must always skim over pleasures. They are like marshy lands that we must travel nimbly, hardly daring to put down our feet.

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.

If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.

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.

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

I have lived one hundred years; and I die with the consolation of never having thrown the slightest ridicule upon the smallest virtue.

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

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 Moon.

I shall leave the world without regret, for it hardly contains a single good listener.

It is high time for me to depart, for at my age I now begin to see things as they really are.

There are three things I have loved but never understood. Art, music and women.

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

I hate war, for it spoils conversation.

If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened it.

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