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

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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

• Criticism is prejudice made plausible.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • Criticism
  • Made
  • Prejudice

• 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

• I despise the phony, fancy-pants rhetoric of professors aping jargon-filled European locutions - which have blighted academic film criticism for over 30 years.

  

  Camille Paglia
  • Film
  • Years
  • 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

• Our morality is based on so many factors: of where we were born, who we were born to, what values were instilled in us, what values we chose, the way that our lives have shaped us. That dictates so much of what we assume is our morality, and also the culture, all of these things.

  

  Oscar Isaac
  • Culture
  • Values
  • Morality

• 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

• Why would a lazy guy become a parent of five? Then again, why would creative people who inherently don't like change and criticism become writers, actors, or comedians? There's something about this process. I joke about it: My kids have made me a better person, and I only need, like, 34 more of them to be a really good guy.

  

  Jim Gaffigan
  • People
  • Good
  • Why

• What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • May
  • Fear
  • Moral

• Geometry existed before creation.

  

  Plato
  • Creation
  • Geometry
  • Existed

• If you do not assume the law of non-contradiction, you have nothing to argue about. If you do not assume the principles of sound reason, you have nothing to argue with. If you do not assume libertarian free will, you have no one to argue against. If you do not assume morality to be an objective commodity, you have no reason to argue in the first place.

  

  William J. Murray
  • Reason
  • Morality
  • Arguing

• Well, I am a lot like my dad, and the character of Ted is based on my dad.

  

  Max Cannon
  • Character
  • Dad

• 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