Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle Quotes

We must always skim over pleasures. They are like marshy lands that we must travel nimbly, hardly daring to put down our feet. ~ 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, but they should never permit the entry of others. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

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

It is high time for me to depart, for at my age I now begin to see things as they really are. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

Our sun enlightens the planets that belong to him; why may not every fixed star also have planets to which they give light? ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

A philospher sees the Earth as a large planet, travelling through the heavens, covered with fools ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

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

There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

Nature is never so admired as when she is understood. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

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. ~ 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 at all. Our world is terrifying in its insignificance. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

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. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

There are three things I have loved but never understood. Art, music and women. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

It is beauty that begins to please, and tenderness that completes the cbarm. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

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. ~ 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

I shall leave the world without regret, for it hardly contains a single good listener. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

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. ~ 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 upon the just disposing of the several Parts of the Movement. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

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. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

I hate war, for it spoils conversation. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened it. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

Fontenelle was the most civilized man of his time, and indeed of most times. ~ Isaiah Berlin

Modesty in women has two special advantages,
it enhances beauty and veils uncomeliness. ~ 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 nature; we shall die as usual. ~ 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 virtue. ~ Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

The message would be that the purpose of life is not to eat and drink, watch television and so on. Consuming is not the aim of life. Earning as much money as one can is not the real purpose of life. There is a superior entity, a divinity, le divin as we say in French that is worth thinking about, as are our feelings of wholeness, respect and love, if we can. A society in which these feelings are widespread would be more reasonable than the society the West presently lives in. ~ Bernard D'Espagnat

I declare, on my soul and conscience, that the attainment of power, or of a great name in literature, seemed to me an easier victory than a success with some young, witty, and gracious lady of high degree. ~ Honore De Balzac

Suffering predisposes the mind to devoutness; and most young girls, prompted by instinctive tenderness, lean towards mysticism, the obscurer side of religion. ~ Honore De Balzac

It is in the perfect union of two hearts that complete and total marriage consists. ~ Bernard Of Clairvaux

The woman who loves always smells good. ~ Remy De Gourmont

We still seek to solve conflicts with 'judgement' instead of designing the way forwards. ~ Edward De Bono

In Italy, almost at every step, history and poetry add to the graces of nature, sweeten the memory of the past, and seem to preserve it in eternal youth. ~ Madame De Stael

The 'Women' had to do with the female painted through all ages, all those idols, and maybe I was stuck to a certain extent; I couldn't go on. It did one thing for me: it eliminated composition, arrangement, relationships, light - all this silly talk about line, colour and form - because that was the thing I wanted to get hold of. ~ Willem De Kooning

Great artists have no country. ~ Alfred De Musset

Ernst Mayr characterized the Cartesian view of animals as dumb automatons.2 ~ Frans De Waal

You're late," she said, tapping her watch.
"No, you're just early. ~ Melissa De La Cruz

Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself. ~ Michel De Montaigne

All Sera could do was shake her head. "Please understand, Dak. The only reason the older me is walking so close to the older you is because there's not a whole lot else to choose from."
"Whatever you say," Dak told her. "Come here, let's hook our arms together and see if it's a good fit."
"Gross," Sera said. "I'd rather make out with my dog. ~ Matt De La Pena

Death eats up all things, both the young lamb and the old sheep. ~ Miguel De Cervantes

We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened. ~ Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

What is working stain, does not soil. ~ Edmondo De Amicis

In one universe, they are gorgeous, straight-teethed, long-legged, wrapped in designer fashions, and given sports cars on their sixteenth birthdays. Teacher smile at them and grade them on the curve. They know the first names of the staff. They are the Pride of the Trojans. Oops – I mean Pride of the Blue Devils.

In Universe #2, they throw parties wild enough to attract college students. They worship the stink of Eau de Jocque. They rent beach houses in Cancún during Spring Break and get group-rate abortions before prom. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

In 'Colonization in Reverse'41 (a famous poem much anthologized) the speaker is presented as a more or less reliable commentator who implies that Jamaicans who come to 'settle in de motherlan' are like English people who settled in the colonies. West Indian entrepreneurs, shipping off their countrymen 'like fire', turn history upside down. Fire can destroy, but may also be a source of warmth to be welcomed in temperate England. Those people who 'immigrate an populate' the seat of the Empire seem, like many a colonizer, ready to displace previous inhabitants. 'Jamaica live fi box bread/Out a English people mout' plays on a fear that newcomers might exploit the natives; and some of the immigrants are - like some of the colonizers from 'the motherland' - lazy and inclined to put on airs. Can England, who faced war and braved the worst, cope with people from the colonies turning history upside down? Can she cope with 'Colonizin in reverse'? ~ Mervyn Morris

May the gods always send me stupid enemies. ~ Bernard Cornwell

Content is a glimpse. ~ Willem De Kooning

My confessor? ... Neither he, nor anyone else, God is my confessor. ~ Lucila Gamero De Medina

Ever since the Tim Burton Batman of 1989, it has been de rigueur in movies to focus on the freaky alienation aspect of the superhero's life: This is how talented people make movies for 14-year-olds while retaining their self-respect. ~ David Edelstein

With languages, you can move from one social situation to another. With languages, you are at home anywhere. ~ Edmund De Waal

The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others. ~ Jean De La Bruyere

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues. ~ Jean De La Bruyere

Rarely do they appear great before their valets. ~ Jean De La Bruyere

Cast from your heart the bitterness ... ~ Vincent De Paul

A woman's greatest charm consists in a constant appeal to a man's generosity by a gracious declaration of helplessness which fills him with pride and awakens the most magnificent feelings in his heart. ~ Honore De Balzac

Good morning," said the little prince.
Good morning," said the merchant.
This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need for anything to drink.
Why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.
Because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the merchant. "Computations have been made by experts. With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."
And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?"
Anything you like ... "
As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water. ~ Antoine De Saint Exupery

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth. ~ George Bernard Shaw

She had recently come to think that in such unhappy times-when the odds were so high against personal happiness-to find love was miraculous, and to fulfill it as best as two people could was what really mattered. Was it more important to insist a man's religious beliefs be exactly hers, or that the two of them have in common ideals, a desire to keep love in their lives, and to preserve in every possible way what was best in themselves? The less difference among people, the better; thus she settled it for herself yet was dissatisfied for those for whom she hadn't settled it, ~ Bernard Malamud

He gives Himself as prize and reward: He is the refreshment of holy soul, the ransom of those in captivity. ~ Bernard Of Clairvaux

We have so much ill fortune as inconstancy, or so much bad purpose as folly, we are not so full of evil as we are of inanity; we are not so wretched as we are base ~ Michel De Montaigne

There are many reasons for why a man does what de does. To be himself he must be able to give it all. If a leader cannot give it all he cannot expect his people to give anything. ~ Cesar Chavez

You think I hate men. I guess I do, although some of my best friends...I don't like this position. I mistrust generalized hatred. I feel like one of those twelfth century monks raving on about how evil women are and how they must cover themselves up completely when they go out lest they lead men into evil thoughts. The assumption that the men are the ones who matter, and that the women exist only in relation to them, is so silent and underrunning that ever we never picked it up until recently. But after all, look at what we read. I read Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and Wittgenstein and Freud and Erikson; I read de Montherlant and Joyce and Lawrence and sillier people like Miller and Mailer and Roth and Philip Wylie. I read the Bible and Greek myths and didn't question why all later redactions relegated Gaea-Tellus and Lilith to a footnote and made Saturn the creator of the world. I read or read about, without much question, the Hindus and the Jews, Pythagoras and Aristotle, Seneca, Cato, St.Paul, Luther, Sam Johnson, Rousseau, Swift...well, you understand. For years I didn't take it personally.
So now it is difficult for me to call others bigots when I am one myself. I tell people at once, to warn them, that I suffer from deformation of character. But the truth is I am sick unto death of four thousand years of males telling me how rotten my sex is. Especially it makes me sick when I look around and see such rotten men and such magnificent women, all of whom have a sneaking ~ Marilyn French

I grew up in the United States. ~ Dominique De Villepin

Many of us marvel at the icy insensitivity with which women snuff out their armours. But if they did not blot out the past in this manner, life for them would lose all dignity and they could never resist the fatal familiarities to which they once submitted. ~ Honore De Balzac

Now, I'm not going to deny that I was aware of your beauty. But the point is, this has nothing to do with your beauty. As I got to know you, I began to realise that beauty was the least of your qualities. I became fascinated by your goodness. I was drawn in by it. I didn't understand what was happening to me. And it was only when I began to feel actual, physical pain every time you left the room that it finally dawned on me: I was in love, for the first time in my life. I knew it was hopeless, but that didn't matter to me. And it's not that I want to have you. All I want is to deserve you. Tell me what to do. Show me how to behave. I'll do anything you say. ~ Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos De Laclos

Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy: for every human being should be the realisation of some ideal, either in the mind of God or in the mind of man. ~ Oscar Wilde

I don't think," he said, "that a vicar is supposed to beat a bishop to death, or even back to death."
Mr. Berkeley looked down upon the remains of Bishop Bernard.
"If anyone asks, we'll say he fell over," he said. "Lots of times. ~ John Connolly

A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Generally our confidences move downward rather than upward; in our secret affairs, we employ our inferiors much more than our bettors. ~ Honore De Balzac