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Poetry had a much more serious beginning than is usually imagin'd, and... the Muses have of late days mightily deviated from their original Gravity.

— Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle

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Science

More quotes by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle

Astronomy is the daughter of idleness, geometry is the daughter of interest.

We can never add more truth to what is true already, nor make that true which is false.

The History of Oracles, and the Cheats of the Pagan Priests (1688)

It is more reasonable to remove error from truth, than to venerate error because it is mix'd with truth.

The History of Oracles, and the Cheats of the Pagan Priests (1688)

If I held all of truth in my hand I would beware of opening it to men.

Behold a universe so immense that I am lost in it. I no longer know where I am. I am just nothing at all. Our world is terrifying in its insignificance.

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Henri Poincaré Science and Hypothesis (1901)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.