It seems to me that courage is the knowledge of what is to be feared and what is to be hoped for, both in war and in all other circumstances.
c. 380 BC
There [...] still remains the resource of fanaticism against any prince timid enough not to dare establish the law of tolerance.
1772
How, without the help of reason, can one know if it is true that the divinity has spoken?
1766
It is enough to have once learned the things of this world [...], whereas it is not enough to have once understood those of the other kind [spiritual truths].
1656-1657
Bronze statuette of a goddess
1st–2nd century CE
The perception called judgment [...] is always the perception that one idea contains another.
1817
The love of independence was to be succeeded by fear and perhaps disgust for free institutions; after such an abuse of liberty, such a reversal was inevitable.
1893
Imperfect discourse [...] holds the mind in suspense, because it is missing something, which is why it is imperfect.
c. 1270
To have a right is to have something which society ought to guarantee me the possession of.
1861
Sibylle
ca. 1870
Students and scholars [...] generally aim for information, not insight. [...] That information is only a means [...], that it has little or no value in itself, does not occur to them.
1905
There is a Justice, and its gaze sees all.
1st Century A.D.
It is very true that contractual relations [...] multiply as the social division of labor increases. But [...] non-contractual relations develop at the same time.
1893
...nothingness is surely preferable to something repugnant!
1876
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Bénévent
1808
He who spends when he ought not to is ostentatious and prodigal.
4th century BC
the perpetual unexpected giving his style the value of an October landscape that clouds [...] modulate.
1926
A man's honor [...] is not in the power of another; it is within himself and not in the opinion of the people.
1761
There are neither talents, nor wisdom, nor solid pleasures in the heart of error.
1746
Hinge
3900 BCE - 100 CE
I abandoned my homeland so that it would not be stained with the blood of citizens.
September 57 BC
If a man who commanded all of nature had existed, would such prodigious events not have been the main part of history?
1764
One cannot desire the cross. One could desire any degree of asceticism or heroism, but not the cross, which is penal suffering.
1947
I am not one of those for whom commitment takes the place of reason.
1695
The Burial of Christ
1595
Paganism sacrificed bodies, whereas Christianity sacrifices souls.
1842-1845
I think, therefore I am.
1637
Everyone calls barbarism what is not their own custom.
1580
What is more wretched than to be able to always become less and less? What is richer than [...] to love greatly that which cannot be diminished?
c. 253-270 AD
Stucco relief panel
2nd half of 1st century CE
Intellectual health [...] is manifested by a taste for action, the faculty of adapting [...], firmness joined with flexibility, [...] a spirit of simplicity that triumphs over complications, and finally, a superior common sense.
1932
The duty of truthfulness [...] is an absolute duty which applies in all cases.
1797
[The cultivation of land] is a source that does not run dry. The more one draws from it, the more it grows. Such is the advantage of exploiting the land over exploiting mines.
1776
If quickness of mind alone should not command in chief, it can at least command in second.
1636
Terracotta warriors
6th century BCE(?)
The legislative power is that which has a right to direct how the force of the commonwealth shall be employed for preserving the community and the members of it.
1690
Men [...] are naturally enemies, so that however bound they may be by social institutions, they remain what nature has made them.
1677
The multiplicity and diversity of sensory goods are the reason we recognize their vanity less, and are always in the hope of finding the true good we desire within them.
1674-1675
If you want to make [someone] rich, do not add to their possessions, but subtract from their desires.
63-64 AD
Portrait of a Man in a Fur-Trimmed Coat
1535
When the most abstruse truths are once well clarified [...], the most mediocre mind is able to understand them.
1609
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
Our passions are not susceptible to those impressions that come from the refinement of the mind and imagination.
1751
There are only passions without truth, truth without passion, heroes without heroic deeds, history without events.
1851/1852
Marble statuette of Aphrodite Anadyomene (rising)
1st century CE
It is upon [its] happy return that love breathes [...] a dormant and covered fire that winter concealed within our veins.
1546/1563
If one knows [...] that man has no other measure for his actions than what seems to him to be so [...], one will have no anger or indignation against anyone.
c. 108 AD
Fools were created for the amusement of the wise; one must laugh at them.
1775-1784
Consider a ferry crossing a river. If an empty, drifting boat happens to bump into it, [...] the ferrymen will not get angry, because no person has come into conflict with them, the boat being empty.
4th century BC
The Spinner
1653