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

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

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Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle
Daughter
Science
Astronomy
Geometry
Idleness
Property

More quotes by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

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It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes.
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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.
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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 feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist.
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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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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 from this consequence another.
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If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.
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Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future.
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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 is never so admired as when she is understood.
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To be happy, one must have a good stomach and a bad heart.
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An educated mind is, as it were, composed of all the minds of preceding ages.
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I have lived one hundred years and I die with the consolation of never having thrown the slightest ridicule upon the smallest virtue.
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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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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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Modesty in women has two special advantages,--it enhances beauty and veils uncomeliness.
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It is the passions that do and undo everything.
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A philosopher will not believe what he sees because he is too busy speculating about what he does not see.
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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.
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