Elijah to Cyrano
The Other World (1657)
Context: The angel had told me in my dream that if I wanted to acquire the perfect knowledge I desired, I would have to go to the Moon. There I would find Adam's paradise and the Tree of Knowledge. As soon as I had tasted its fruit, my mind would be enlightened with all the truths a person could know. That is the voyage for which I built my chariot.
Finally, I climbed aboard and, when I was securely settled on the seat, I tossed the magnetic ball high into the air. The chariot I had built was more massive in the middle than at the ends; it was perfectly balanced because the middle rose faster than the extremities. When I had risen to the point that the magnet was drawing me to, I seized the magnetic ball and tossed it into the air again.
“I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.”
No. 125. (Usbek writing to Rhedi)
Lettres Persanes (Persian Letters, 1721)
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Montesquieu 34
French social commentator and political thinker 1689–1755Related quotes
Part II. Of the Extent of Sensible Knowledge.
The Physiology of the Senses: Or, How and what We See, Hear, Taste, Feel and Smell (1856)
" My First Acquaintance with Poets http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/FirstAcquaintancePoets.htm" (1822)
The Plain Speaker (1826)
“Artists have a sensibility that others don't have. They have a way of reading into the future.”
"All in the family" http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1207766-3,00.html, TIME, 06-25-2006
“Where we are would be Paradise to me, if you would only make it so.”
Metropolis (1908)
Context: I'm going to stop squandering money for things I don't want. I'm going to stop accepting invitations, and meeting people I don't like and don't want to know. I've tried your game — I've tried it hard, and I don't like it; and I'm going to get out before it's too late. I'm going to find some decent and simple place to live in; and I'm going down town to find out if there isn't some way in New York for a man to earn an honest living!