36 quotes
A mere nothing, a tiny fibre, something that could never be found by the most delicate anatomy, would have made of Erasmus and Fontenelle two idiots, and Fontenelle himself speaks of this very fact in one of his best dialogues.
Man a Machine (1747)
[E]ither everything is illusion, nature as well as revelation, or experience alone can explain faith.
Man a Machine (1747)
[T]he, diverse states of the soul are always correlative with those of the body.
Man a Machine (1747)
[A] brilliant man is his own best company, unless he can find other company of the same sort.
Man a Machine (1747)
[I]magination is the soul, since it plays all the roles of the soul.
Man a Machine (1747)
Ancient philosophy will always hold its own among those who are worthy to judge it, because it forms... a system that is solid and well articulated like the body, whereas all these scattered members of modern philosophy form no system.
The Natural History of the Soul (1745)
The Christian Scholastics... might have shown that God Himself said that He had "imprinted an active principle in the elements of matter (Gen. i; Is. lxvi).
The Natural History of the Soul (1745)
If one's organism is... the preeminent advantage, and the source of all others, education is the second. The best made brain would be a total loss without it...
Man a Machine (1747)
[T]hought is so little incompatible with organized matter, that it seems to be one of its properties on a par with electricity, the faculty of motion, impenetrability, extentension, etc.
Man a Machine (1747)
Whatever the virtue may be, from whatever source it may come, it is worthy of esteem... Mind, beauty, wealth, nobility, although the children of chance, all have their own value, as skill, learning and virtue have theirs.
Man a Machine (1747)
[H]e who has the most imagination should be regarded as having the most intelligence or genius, for all these words are synonymous...
Man a Machine (1747)
The ancients, persuaded that there is no body without a moving force, regarded the substance of bodies as composed of two primitive attributes. It was held that, through one of these attributes, this substance has the capacity for moving and, through the other, the capacity for being moved.
The Natural History of the Soul (1745)
[T]he sciences that are expressed by numbers or by other small signs, are easily learned; and... this facility rather than its demonstrability is what has made the fortune of algebra.
Man a Machine (1747)
Let us... take in our hands the staff of experience... To be blind and to think that one can do without this staff is the worst kind of blindness.
Man a Machine (1747)
[W]hy should we divide the sensitive principle which thinks in man? ...For a thing that is divided can no longer without absurdity be regarded as indivisible.
Man a Machine (1747)
[T]his man who is devoured by jealousy, hatred, avarice, or ambition, can never find any rest. The most peaceful spot, the freshest and most calming drinks are alike useless to one who has not freed his heart from the torment of passion.
Man a Machine (1747)