Julien Offray de La Mettrie Quotes
Julien Offray de La Mettrie was a French physician and Enlightenment philosopher whose uncompromising materialism made him one of the most controversial thinkers of his age. Forced into exile first to the Netherlands and then to the court of Frederick the Great, he produced Man a Machine, an extension of the Cartesian doctrine of animal automata to human beings, and Anti-Seneca, a naturalist treatise on happiness that scandalized his Enlightenment colleagues with its frank hedonism. The quotes below are attributed to Julien Offray de La Mettrie, organized by topic.
Browse Julien Offray de La Mettrie by topic
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on God
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“Descartes , a genius made to blaze new paths and to go astray in them, supposed with some other philosophers that God is the only efficient cause of motion , and that every instant He communicates motion to all bodies. But this opinion is but an hypothesis which he tried to adjust to the light of faith ; and in so doing he was no longer attempting to speak as a philosopher or to philosophers. Above all he was not addressing those who can be convinced only by the force of evidence.”
Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on Happiness
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Attributed to Julien Offray de La Mettrie:
“Pleasure and pain are the springs of action.”
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on Knowledge
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“Preface, Oeuvres philosophiques de Monsieur de La Mettrie (1764) as quoted by Paul Carus , The Mechanistic Principle and the Non-mechanical (1913) p. 102.”
Write as if thou wert alone in the universe and hadst nothing to fear from the jealousies and prejudices of the people. Otherwise thou wilt miss thy purpose. -
“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.”
Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on Mind
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Attributed to Julien Offray de La Mettrie:
“The soul is but the engine of the body.”
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Attributed to Julien Offray de La Mettrie:
“Whether what we call mind is matter that thinks, or some immaterial principle, we cannot finally say; but the difference does not change what we observe.”
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on Nature
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Attributed to Julien Offray de La Mettrie:
“Man is a machine.”
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“Write as if thou wert alone in the universe and hadst nothing to fear from the jealousies and prejudices of the people. Otherwise thou wilt miss thy purpose.”
Preface, Oeuvres philosophiques de Monsieur de La Mettrie (1764) as quoted by Paul Carus , The Mechanistic Principle and the Non-mechanical (1913) p. 102. -
“Ch. III Concerning the Extension of Matter”
[B]efore Descartes , some of the ancients made the essence of matter consist in solid extension. But this opinion, of which all the Cartesians have made much, has at all times been victoriously combated... -
“Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter”
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. -
“[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?”
Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter -
“Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter”
[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?
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on Time
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“(c. 1734) in a successful argument to persuade his father that a medical education was preferred. As quoted by Friedrich Albert Lange , History of Materialism and Critique of its Present Importance Tr. Ernest Chester Thomas (1882) 2nd edition, Vol. 2, p. 55.”
A good prescription is still more profitable than an absolution .
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on Virtue
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Attributed to Julien Offray de La Mettrie:
“Materialism, far from undermining virtue, is its only honest foundation.”
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“A good prescription is still more profitable than an absolution .”
(c. 1734) in a successful argument to persuade his father that a medical education was preferred. As quoted by Friedrich Albert Lange , History of Materialism and Critique of its Present Importance Tr. Ernest Chester Thomas (1882) 2nd edition, Vol. 2, p. 55.