Honesty, humanity, good faith, are purely private virtues. Kings should have no rule but their own whim.
c. 62 AD
Society only lends this binding force to contracts that have a social value in themselves, that is, which conform to the rules of law.
1893
If the universe is sympathetic to itself because it constitutes one animal, and if we are affected because we are contained within this one animal [...], why would continuity not be necessary for us to sense a distant object?
c. 253-270 AD
The internal sanction of duty, whatever our standard of duty may be, is one and the same—a feeling in our own mind.
1861
Terracotta statuette of a veiled woman
2nd century BCE
The last of the forms, which is the human soul, has a power altogether superior to the matter of the body, namely [...] the intellect.
1270
One must exhort the living to imitate the virtue of the dead and to console their descendants.
c. 387 BC
The merchant only does good business because the youth loves pleasure.
1580
Your life is worth even more than your two hands, [...] So why do you make yourself sick with sadness, to the point of compromising your life, for such an insignificant object?
4th century BC
The Assumption of the Virgin
ca. 1337–39
You give me back to myself.
September 57 BC
[The words] public good, happiness of the subjects, glory of the nation [...] never announce anything but fatal orders, and the people groan in advance when their masters speak to them of their paternal cares.
1762
[The philosopher] has revealed to men, for their happiness, most important truths.
1758
The immediate cause of the inability to learn is prejudice, and the cause of prejudice is a false opinion of our own knowledge.
1772
The Congregation of the Mother of God
1570
An ounce of a man’s own wit is worth a ton of other people’s.
1905
Now nothing bad can happen to me; for me there are no thieves, no earthquakes; everywhere is peace and tranquility.
c. 108 AD
Most men are far too busy with themselves to be wicked.
1878
Formerly, the phrase went beyond the content; here, the content goes beyond the phrase.
1851/1852
Buckle
7000 BCE - 330 CE
Mercy, rarely used and with judgment, is a beautiful and singular virtue in a prince; but ordinary clemency without distinction [...] is the complete subversion of all order.
c. 1552-1553
All prediction is in reality a vision.
1889
The idea of perfection sterilized French poetry for a century and a half [...].
1926
The inner worship of the Divinity and piety in itself belong properly to each individual [...] and cannot be subjected to the will of another.
1670
Limestone statuette of Geryon
probably early 5th century BCE
The more necessary vice is, the more it is vice; nothing in the world is more vicious than that which, by its nature, is incapable of being good.
1746
One may [...] wonder if [a system] that succeeds with one people does not find insurmountable obstacles in the character and natural dispositions of another.
1864-1866
If it is prescribed to hate [one's family], in a certain sense of the word hate, it is certainly forbidden to love one's country, in a certain sense of the word love. For the proper object of love is the good, and 'God alone is good'.
1943
It is as easy for the Mind to unite the idea of a great number of men into a single idea [...] as to form a singular idea from all the distinct ideas that enter into the composition of a man.
1689
Bronze pendant in the form of a paired couple
8th century BCE
God is personality, and at the same time he is impersonality, universality. God is therefore personified nonsense.
1841
Not having yet sufficiently examined the nature [of a subject], I was afraid of doing something contrary to what I might learn hereafter.
1643-1649
[It is] a means of communication so convenient [...] that allows the smallest fortunes to enjoy facilities that once could only belong to great lords and rich financiers.
1662
To conceal difficulties, even to treat them as impieties in order to discredit them, is a wretched expedient devoid of all value.
1793
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1815
It is only by means of signs [...] that we elaborate our primary ideas; without them, most [...] would never be formed, or would immediately vanish.
1817
[To deny things all power would be] to change them from substances, which they are, into modes; as Spinoza does, who wants God alone to be a substance.
1686
[...] memory [...] would not consist in a facility to operate resulting from certain modifications of their being, but in an immutable order of God[...]
1674-1675
[The monopolists] lay down the law to the farmers who can only sell to them.
1776
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints
ca. 1504
To walk between these two excesses [being loved or feared] is an absolutely impossible thing, to which human nature itself is opposed.
1513-1519
Authority [...] was shared with others, while the glory remained his own, even when he had colleagues. It was [...] the effect of his moderation [...] and the fruit of his prudence.
100-120 AD
[...] all readers who are greater friends of truth than of Plato.
1760
Although a passion, for being secret, is no less a passion, [...] it matters greatly to know how to make a mystery of it.
1636
The Highland Family
1824
Others skim over everything, and attach themselves only to the bulk of events.
1623
One can be a good person while suspecting that the fable is a lie.
1775
There enters into our composition something of the character of the turtledove, though allied with that of the wolf and the serpent.
1751
As for things that escape our senses, we believe we have demonstrated them sufficiently [...] when we have succeeded in showing that they are possible.
c. 334 BC
Apple Blossoms
1873