A mind that occupies itself night and day with meditations attains that knowledge so recommended by the oracle of Delphi: self-knowledge.
45 BC
No one can lead a happy or even a bearable life without the study of wisdom.
63-64 AD
In its regard, there is nothing beautiful or ugly, good or bad, perfect or imperfect.
17th century
April, the grace, and the smile [...], the scent and the sweet breath.
1546/1563
Bronze statuette of a camillus (attendant)
ca. 50 BCE–50 CE
If he [the wage-earner] were to resign himself to accept the will [...] of the capitalist as a permanent economic law, he would share in the miserable fate of the slave, without the security of the slave.
1865
The family is a school of despotism in which the virtues of despotism, but also its vices, are lavishly nourished.
1869
Only the experience of freedom [...] can suggest and give to man the opinions, virtues, and habits that befit the citizen of a free country.
1864-1866
From 'every man is an animal', it does not follow that 'every animal is a man', for 'animal' says more than 'man'.
c. 1270
Engraving
18th century
It is enough that we be granted [...] that we experience within ourselves some benevolence, however slight, and that we feel some sparks of friendship for the human race.
1751
I see death nonchalantly when I see it universally, as the end of life. I rebuke it in the mass; in detail, it ransacks me.
1580
To live without committing the slightest injustice is, in my eyes, the most beautiful way to prepare my defense.
4th century BC
Wherever there are men sensitive to passions, and where imagination is the master of reason, there is strangeness, and an incomprehensible strangeness.
1674-1675
Portrait head of philosopher ?
4th century BCE
Nothing can [...] happen to one of its parts without the other parts feeling it more or less, and the world thus forms a whole sympathetic to itself.
c. 253-270 AD
I experience a tearing that worsens ceaselessly, both in my intelligence and in the center of my heart, from my inability to think together in truth the misfortune of men, the perfection of God, and the link between the two.
1957
Recognized integrity is the most secure of all oaths.
1839
An attitude is one thing, an action is another. Every attitude is false and small; every action is beautiful and true.
1766
View of the Campidoglio with the Statue of Marcus Aurelius
1762
He takes life as it is, and paints it as he sees it. But how one feels that it is all indifferent to him!
1926
There is a nobler prize, a more beautiful glory, which virtue deserves [...] A just and sincere heart is greater [...] than all those conquerors who were taken for gods.
1718-1778
[The collective conscience] is something other than particular consciences, although it is only realized in individuals. It is the psychic type of society [...].
1893
The imagination may perhaps be excused if it sometimes raves [...]. But that the understanding, whose business it is to think, should instead rave, is something that can never be forgiven.
1783
The Huis ten Bosch at The Hague and Its Formal Garden (View from the South)
ca. 1668–70
Even misfortune has its charms in great extremities; for this opposition of fortune elevates a courageous spirit, and makes it gather all its forces which it was not using.
1746
If someone says they do not know how they think, one can reply that they also do not know how they are extended, nor how the solid parts of their body are united to make a whole.
1689
At a first glance, everyone will be convinced that all Theological truths are linked.
1768
It is in solemn circumstances [...] that we choose in spite of what is conventionally called a motive; and this absence of any tangible reason is all the more striking the more profoundly free we are.
1889
Peasants Dancing
1651
In the election of its magistrates, one sees [...] the people make far better choices than a prince; and one will never persuade the people to raise a corrupt man to a position of dignity [...].
1513-1519
The word makes man free; as long as he cannot speak, he is a slave: an outrageous passion, an excessive joy, an extreme sorrow, are equally mute.
1841
To paint his miser, perhaps Molière drew upon all the misers of his century, just as Phidias drew upon all strong men to model their Hercules.
1772
It would be supremely absurd for the one who pursues a goal to achieve it less than the one who does not bother with it.
c. 108 AD
Marble head of a youth
4th century BCE
Almost all small States, whether republics or monarchies, prosper for the sole reason that they are small.
1762
How common it is for a happy man to deceive himself about the immutability of his happiness!
1636
O high noon of life! [...] Restless happiness, standing and listening; I await friends, ready night and day.
1886
I am not one of those for whom commitment takes the place of reason.
1695
Terracotta statuette of a doll
3rd century BCE
One can therefore suspect him of having followed only a disorderly passion and the attraction of pleasure.
100-120 AD
Others do not so much impress upon things the image of their mind as that of their passions, never losing sight of the interest of their party [...].
1623
One cannot preserve old grace except by acquiring new grace; otherwise, one will lose what one thinks one holds, like those who, wishing to enclose the light, enclose only darkness.
1656-1657
The word is altered when a part of the uttered word is rejected and another is made arbitrarily.
c. 335 BC
Saint Bernardino
ca. 1460–70
Duration and movement are measured with the utmost precision, thanks to extension.
1817
...it is not so much the theory, as the practice, that is difficult in this matter.
1643-1649
To do well, man must follow his natural instinct.
4th century BC
Movable wealth does more than replace itself; it accumulates.
1776
Statuette of a youth with duck
900 BCE - 100 BCE