The wise man endures these things, he does not seek them out: he prefers peace to the fray.
63-64 AD
The cause of the cause is also the cause of the effect.
1840
For common sense, the object exists in itself and, on the other hand, the object is, in itself, picturesque as we perceive it: it is an image, but an image that exists in itself.
1896
God practices geometry, and [...] mathematics are a part of the intellectual world, and are the most suited to provide entry to it.
1702
Portrait of a Woman
1817
One must be wary of authors who report that in some countries the laws permit women to have several husbands. [...] What is not in conformity with the ordinary course of nature is rarely true.
1764
Blessed be that which makes one hard! I do not praise the land where butter and honey flow!
1883-1885
A great man, even on an unpopular path, must always be the object of a liberal curiosity.
1827
To be original, [the writer] is obliged to prepare the ruin of a language whose progress he would have hastened a century earlier.
1746
The Triumph of Henry IV
ca. 1630
Everything good that I did, I did not do for the spectators, but for myself.
c. 108 AD
[Hell] is the kitchen hearth that keeps the Sacerdotal pot boiling in this world.
1768
Everything I desire exists, or has existed, or will exist somewhere. [...] Hence, how can one not be fulfilled?
1947
To see is to see in a certain light; to know is to know in a certain sense.
1926
Odalisque in Grisaille
ca. 1824–34
[Objection:] That this proposition, that a space is empty, is repugnant to common sense.
1647
It is through fear or envy that men give themselves to hatred: now these two most fertile sources of hatred are dried up with regard to the past.
1513-1519
To leave [one's country] to evade one's duty [...] the moment the fatherland needs us [...] would be criminal and punishable; it would no longer be retirement, but desertion.
1762
An excellent method for conquering liberty, to begin by imprisoning oneself in one's clothes!
1623
George Moore (1852–1933)
1879
It must be admitted that evil is but a defect of good (éllipsis toû agathoû).
c. 253-270 AD
One should judge people by their deeds rather than their words.
c. 380 BC
Pity [is a] vicious passion for the Stoics: they want us to help the afflicted, but not to bend and commiserate with them.
1580
Science must avoid two pitfalls: clinging to the immediate given of representation [and] severing the ideal development [...] from the object of representation, which is the concrete.
1841
Saint Bernardino
ca. 1460–70
The idea that murder could be tolerated outrages us, but we accept very well that inheritance law might be modified [...].
1893
The multitude believes more in persons than in things, and [...] is more persuaded by the authority of the speaker than by the reasons he gives.
c. 1552-1553
[Faith] condemns as heretics [...] only those who teach opinions capable of leading to rebellion, hatred, disputes, and anger.
1670
I would sooner understand a city existing without ground than I could imagine a city that could be organized or maintained after the idea of the Divinity had been completely destroyed within it.
1st Century A.D.
Standing boy with a goose
3rd century BCE
Since many people are dominated by the lure of profit [...], it is a cause for fear to be at the mercy of another.
329-323 BC
These operations, having always been poorly untangled, can only be poorly named.
1817
Pardon, king, [...] poverty, not distress. The scholar who possesses the knowledge of the Principle and its action is never in distress.
4th century BC
The desire of the clergy has always been to be powerful and rich. By what means did it manage to satisfy this? Through the sale of fear and hope.
1772
The Outer Harbor of Brest
1773
Where vice reigns so imperiously, it cannot be overstated, let us not believe that peace of mind and pleasure can dwell.
1746
A writer so full of research, so clear, so abundant, and who puts so much soul into everything he says, could he not be truly profound!
45 BC
It is evident that one cannot distinctly know the changes of which a being is capable, when one does not distinctly know the nature of that being.
1674-1675
Ignorance is the mother of devotion, a proverbial maxim, but one confirmed by experience.
1757
Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Lady Agnes Anne Wrothesley
1791
The severe word of Kant is a manifesto in which Morality announces that it is free and independent of any kind of revelation, of any kind of God above or below [...].
1841
Everything can change its appearance in this world, because everything is subject to growth and decline.
1636
The fatal tendency of the human race to set aside a thing as soon as it is no longer questioned has caused half of its errors.
1859
I have seen a crowd of men disturb the country to aggrandize themselves: that is common perversity; but [others] have always seemed ready to turn the world upside down for their own amusement.
1893
The Madonna of Humility, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Pietà
ca. 1465
It is [...] such a praiseworthy virtue to judge others favorably.
1643-1649
The laws of nature [...] are as intelligible and as clear to a rational creature [...] as the positive laws of societies and states can be; and even [...] clearer and more evident.
1690
What did not exist, now exists; one sees what one does not understand, and the only thought that remains is that of the omnipotence of God.
1263-1264
There are no people more offended by wickedness than those who have never known what it costs to be good.
1759-1774
Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist
ca. 1497