Julien Offray de La Mettrie quotes - page 2

This is then another new faculty which might exist only potentially in matter, like all the others. (Julien Offray de La Mettrie)
It is not enough for a wise man to study nature and truth; he should dare state truth for the benefit of the few who are willing and able to think. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
We have now but to prove a third attribute: I mean the faculty of feeling. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
Among animals, some learn to speak and sing; they remember tunes, and strike the notes as exactly as a musician. Others, for instance the ape, show more intelligence... would it be absolutely impossible to teach the ape a language? I do not think so. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
In general, the form and the structure of the brains of quadrupeds are almost the same as those of the brain of man... View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
If there is a revelation, it can not then contradict nature. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
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. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
I reduce to two the systems of philosophy which deal with man's soul. The first and older system is materialism; the second is spiritualism. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
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. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
[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. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
A geometrician has learned to perform the most difficult demonstrations and calculations, as a monkey has learned to take his little hat off and on... (Julien Offray de La Mettrie)
One needs only eyes to see the necessary influence of old age on reason. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
[I]f we demonstrate this moving principle, if we show that matter, far from being as indifferent as it is supposed to be, to movement and to rest, ought to be regarded as an active, as well as a passive substance, what resource can be left to those who have made its essence consist in extension? View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
The soul is... but an empty word, of which no one has any idea, and which an enlightened man should use only to signify the part in us that thinks... View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
Man has been trained in the same way as animals. He has become an author, as they became beasts of burden. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
Let us not limit the resources of nature; they are infinite, especially when reinforced by great art. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
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. View quote
Julien Offray de La Mettrie