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
  • Reality
  • Political

• 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

• Killing the criticizer, then, is part of our evolutionary past; listening in response to criticism is part of our evolutionary future.

  

  Warren Farrell
  • Future
  • Past
  • Listening

• 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

• If there's any kind of morality, for me, it's about reality; what is reality? I have a hard time distinguishing what is valuable when it comes to the real world and the fantasy world. Like, should I invest my time in the ordinary world or the imaginary world?

  

  Sufjan Stevens
  • World
  • Kind
  • Morality

• If you wish to make a man look noble, your best course is to kill him. What superiority he may have inherited from his race, what superiority nature may have personally gifted him with, comes out in death.

  

  Alexander Smith
  • May
  • Nature
  • Death

• We need more true mystery in our lives Hem- he said. The completely unambitious writer and the really good unpublished poem are the things we lack most. There is of course the problem of sustenance

  

  Ernest Hemingway
  • Problem
  • Needs
  • Mystery

• You have to decide what is extraneous and what is central. There is always more to tell. If you want to have a finished product, at some point you have to say "enough."

  

  Adele Logan Alexander
  • Say
  • Decide
  • Finished

• Our stubbornness is right, because we want to preserve the liberty which we have in Christ. Only by preserving our liberty shall we be able to retain the truth of the Gospel inviolate.

  

  Martin Luther
  • Truth

• 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