Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle Quotes

A work of morality, politics, criticism will be more elegant, other things being equal, if it is shaped by the hand of geometry.

Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle

• Criticism
• Morality
• Geometry

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• Morality covers our conduct, not what goes on inside our heads.

  

  J. G. Ballard
  • Morality
  • Inside
  • Conduct

• On one side, citizens have great respect for the United States; they have a great feeling of friendship. That is solid. But in the opposition and in the political arena I often find criticism of the closeness of relations with the United States. That is a reality.

  

  Vicente Fox
  • Great
  • Political
  • Reality

• But I honestly don't read critics. My dad reads absolutely everything ever written about me. He calls me up to read ecstatic reviews, but I always insist that I can't hear them. If you give value to the good reviews, you have to give value to the criticism.

  

  Fiona Apple
  • Up
  • Good
  • Dad

• Perhaps there is no greater evidence that the teachers' union has swung too far out of the mainstream that they both have been a target of near-constant criticism from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

  

  Brown Campbell
  • Education
  • Criticism
  • Target

• The Holocaust changed our perception of morality not only because we discovered that morality is the only thing that can stand up to the ultimate evil, but also because it shifted the focus from society to the individual.

  

  Yair Lapid
  • Up
  • Society
  • Focus

• There's always the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street.

  

  D. H. Lawrence
  • Real
  • End
  • Garden

• As far as criticism, I don't mind critics. I mean, I wrote for 'Rolling Stone' for a hot minute. I like criticism. I enjoy criticism. The thing I don't like is cruelty for cruelty's sake. You don't have to be a jerk to say something negative. You can say something in the negative sense and have class.

  

  Patrick Stump Fall Out Boy
  • Mind
  • Enjoy
  • Criticism

• Philosophy as practice does not mean its restriction to utility or applicability, that is, to what serves morality or produces serenity of soul.

  

  Karl Jaspers
  • Soul
  • Practice
  • Philosophy

• Morality is contraband in war.

  

  Mahatma Gandhi
  • War
  • Morality

• I like moral judgment to emerge from the reader. We are being sold a very simplistic morality by our leaders at a time when nuance and understanding are at a premium.

  

  Hari Kunzru
  • Time
  • Understanding
  • Moral

• People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you've figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence. Don't be shy or feel intimidated by the experience. You may face some unexpected criticism, but be prepared for it with confidence.

  

  Jack Canfield
  • People
  • May
  • Experience

• There is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of the men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.

  

  G. H. Hardy
  • Work
  • Men
  • Criticism

• Blown about with every wind of criticism.

  

  Samuel Johnson
  • Wind
  • Criticism

• What puzzles me most is your criticism that he showed 'no sense of engagement'. I haven't met the expression before, and feel bound to comment on its totalitarian tang. Engagement not with the truth as the speaker apprehends it, but with the alleged opinion of the majority of listeners.

  

  E. M. Forster
  • Truth
  • Opinion
  • Criticism

• What’s true is that everyone is uncomfortable with expressing anger and being critical. Anger and criticism generates rejection. And everyone hates rejection.

  

  Warren Farrell
  • True
  • Criticism
  • Rejection

• The hard part (of communication) is hearing criticism so it can be easily given.

  

  Warren Farrell
  • Communication
  • Criticism

• Anybody that gives even a just criticism of the Jew is instantly labeled antisemite. The Jew cries louder than anybody else if anybody criticizes him. You can tell the truth about any minority in America, but make a true observation about the Jew, and if it doesn’t pat him on the back, then he uses his grip on the news media to label you anti-Semite.

  

  Malcolm X
  • Truth
  • America
  • True

• Like it or not, women are always subject to criticism if they show too much feeling in public.

  

  Hillary Clinton
  • Women
  • Feeling
  • Criticism

• Grace abounds in contemporary movies, books, novels, films and music. If God is not in the whirlwind, He may be in a Woody Allen film, or a Bruce Springsteen concert. Most people understand imagery and symbol better than doctrine and dogma. Images touch hearts and awaken imaginations. One theologian suggested that Springsteen's 'Tunnel of Love' album, in which he symbolically sings of sin, death, despair and redemption, is more important for Catholics than the Pope's last visit when he spoke of morality only in doctrinal propositions.

  

  Brennan Manning
  • Music
  • Movies
  • Grace

• This is a really great, old-style golf course. Anybody in the field that's got their game going has a real chance. It doesn't single any particular player out.

  

  J. M. Roberts
  • Golf
  • Course
  • Old style

• My nonviolence does recognize different species of violence, defensive and offensive.

  

  Mahatma Gandhi
  • Violence
  • Recognize
  • Species

• It's very hard to describe your own style. And I'm young, so I'm still experimenting. But I think it's quite British and very much about individuality.

  

  Emma Watson
  • Style

• A work of morality, politics, criticism will be more elegant, other things being equal, if it is shaped by the hand of geometry.

  

  Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle
  • Criticism
  • Morality
  • Geometry