Nothing will remain for him but the ignominy of having made tirades against good people.
1741-1784
Extraordinary actions can only come from a heart that is also extraordinary.
1636
Those to whom God has given religion by a feeling of the heart are blessed [...]. To those who do not have it, we can only give it by reasoning, while waiting for God to give it to them by a feeling of the heart [...].
1670
In proportion to a man's lack of confidence in his own solitary judgment, he bestows more implicit faith in the infallibility of 'the world' in general.
1859
Terracotta statuette of Harpocrates
2nd century CE
[...] one never does evil except through error or ignorance, and [...] the guilty are merely unfortunate blind men.
c. 108 AD
School cannot be the property of a party, and the teacher fails in their duties when they use the authority at their disposal to draw their students into the rut of their personal biases.
1922
Today, the issue is not the existence or non-existence of God, but the existence or non-existence of man; we must concern ourselves [...] with the equality of men among themselves [...].
1841
The nature of property consists in possessing something in such a way that no one can legitimately take anything from it without the owner's consent.
1690
Terracotta head of a woman
6th century BCE
'All that is good is light, all that is divine runs on delicate feet': the first thesis of my Aesthetics.
1888
Human life [...] owes almost everything [to the mechanical arts]. However, it is from the same source that the instruments of vice and even the instruments of death are derived.
1620
What caused no less confusion in the military operations was the multitude of chiefs.
100-120 AD
It was political freedom, then immense, that engendered the taste for literary freedom.
1926
Saint Michael the Archangel
1640s
The markets make the law for the government.
1776
They call just and beautiful the things that are necessary, for they are ignorant of how great in reality is the distance that separates the essence of the necessary from that of the good.
1934
Why are celibacy, fasting, macerations, self-denial, humility [...] and all monastic virtues rejected by all sensible men? It is because they lead to nothing.
1751
I am of the opinion that the best thing [...] is for all of us to seek out the best possible teacher together, first for ourselves, for we are in the greatest need of one.
c. 380 BC
Standing Herakles (?)
ca. 600–480 BCE
Those who imagine things strongly, express them with great force, and persuade all those who are convinced more by the air and by the sensible impression than by the force of reasons.
1674-1675
I have felt the bitterness of remorse; I have tasted the sweetness of victory. After such comparisons, one no longer hesitates in the choice.
1761
If one had to reject all the stories [...] where the marvelous and the extraordinary appear, what sacred book could possibly be preserved?
1764
This great charge [...] of commanding so many men is not a situation in which one can remain idle.
1580
Terracotta statuette of a deer
1st quarter of the 5th century BCE
The things that the celestial gods produce do not result from a free choice, but from a natural necessity, because they act, as parts of the universe, upon the other parts of the universe.
c. 253-270 AD
It is [April's] gentle hand that, from nature's bosom, releases a harvest of scents and flowers [...].
1546/1563
Space exists only in my head; but empirically my head is in space.
1819
[Such] variations [in theories] already indicate that there is something arbitrary in these divisions, and that they are not manifestly commanded by the facts.
1801
The Virgin Annunciate
possibly 1445–50
Whenever a principle demonstrated to be true seems inapplicable, it is because we are ignorant of the intermediate principle which contains the means of its application.
1797
Men are so avid for novelty that even the fortunate desire it as eagerly as those whose lot is to be pitied.
1513-1519
All the accidents or qualities that our senses show us as existing in the world are not really there, but should only be regarded as appearances.
1772
Old fool [...] who eats without ploughing and dresses without spinning. You who claim that merely opening your lips [...] is enough to establish the distinction between good and evil.
4th century BC
John Churchill (1650–1722), First Duke of Marlborough
1698
It is a poor defense, when dealing with an established crime, to fall back on some minor service.
86-82 BC
Of all the instruments of production, the greatest productive power is the revolutionary class itself.
1847
It is after a great success that one usually encounters the most dangerous chances of ruin: [...] after the victory, one begins to have to deal with oneself.
1893
Greed [...] and all the sicknesses of the soul are never more dangerous [...] than when they slumber in a hypocritical reform.
63-64 AD
A Jaguar Devouring a Deer
after 1840
A somewhat lofty soul loves to struggle against an evil fate, [...] and the fight pleases it even without the victory.
1746
Passion always pushes men in opposite directions, and only the desire for honest things [...] unites them in a single thought.
1677
There are morbid states that are imitations of healthy states: the latter are no less healthy, and the others morbid.
1932
If I dare say so, I claim to thereby advance analysis beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
1686
Louis Morau
1785
The strength of the soul is not enough without the knowledge of truth.
1649
The soul [...] is the first act of an organized physical body.
1270
All that is great has the right to please the eyes and the imagination of men.
1758
Through irony, one makes a jest for one's own sake, while the buffoon is concerned with another.
329-323 BC
Venus and the Lute Player
ca. 1565–70