I appeal to my courage and my sword.
1636
The common person says very well that one cannot do two things at once.
c. 108 AD
If one sees the thing as it is in nature, one is a philosopher. If one forms the object from a choice of scattered parts [...], one is a poet.
1774
The simple act of begetting gives a man a very slender power over his children; if his care went no further [...], this foundation would amount to very little.
1690
Terracotta plank-shaped figurine
ca. 2000–1800 BCE
They live more by memory than by hope; [...] Hence their loquacity.
329-323 BC
There are [...] men whose function is precisely to see and to make us see what, naturally, we would not perceive. They are the artists.
1934
Forgetting the past, banishing the worries of the future, let us enjoy the present; in each moment of our existence, let us seize this good, over which fate and fortune cannot exercise their whims.
1742
All of antiquity believed at least in eternal matter; and the greatest philosophers also attributed eternity to the order of the universe.
1764
David at the Cave of Adullam
1810
For the poet and the wise man, all things are familiar and sanctified, all events useful, all days sacred, all men divine.
1882
Disorder exists only because of order, lawlessness only because of the law, unreason only because of reason, because the order, law, and reason seen here below are only borrowed.
c. 253-270 AD
[...] the doctor might well have to take the place of the victorious critic...
1926
Old discoveries do not stand in the way of new ones.
63-64 AD
Christ Healing the Sick
1742
The greatest souls are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
1637
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood [...] by the masses.
c. 375 BC
Morality lives from the life of the world; it is therefore impossible that what is necessary for the world to live should be contrary to morality.
1893
The text of the first edition [...] represents the initial form of the author's thought.
1643-1662
Strainer
10th century BCE
Envy is never produced by a feeling of justice [...] and yet it is their happiness that excites envy.
c. 72-126 AD
This feeling, when disinterested, and connecting itself with the pure idea of duty [...] forms the essence of Conscience.
1861
It is often forbidden for good people [to speak], for fear that a free judgment might offend the ears of the great.
1574
[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
Marble head of Herakles
1st century CE
What [democratic peoples] love with an eternal love is equality; [...] nothing can satisfy them without equality, and they would rather perish than lose it.
1835-1840
What is presumption in the weak, is elevation in the strong.
1746
I honor most those whom I honor least; and where my soul walks with great joy, I forget the steps of decorum.
1580
[...] the stagnation [...] of the desire [for money] would be fatal to certain states.
1772
Limestone plaque with two eyes
480–310 BCE
[...] if we knew that feeling is, in its origin, only a very slow judgment, we would recognize that what is only judgment for us may have become feeling for others.
1755
There are men who judge what is unseen by what is seen; the greatness [...] of the mind [...] by the nobility, dignities, and riches [...]. One is often measured by the other.
1674-1675
To have glory and youth at the same time is too much for a mortal. Our existence is so poor that its goods must be distributed more sparingly.
1851
When I make a wheel, [...] if I go at it, I know not how, the result will be in line with my ideal [...]. It's a knack that cannot be expressed.
4th century BC
Bronze strainer with loop handle
5th century BCE
Most human beings do not doubt the truth of a thought without which they literally could not live.
1934
To punish without hatred when the crime exists, to forget all prejudice when it does not.
66 BC
Where the absolute stands on one side and limited positive reality on the other [...] the entire world has become a world of myths. Every figure is an enigma.
1841
[...] it is my soul that commands this bread, and not at all the bread that commands my soul [...] It is therefore feeling, and only feeling, that makes the difference between a divine bread and a profane bread [...].
1841
Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and Mary Magdalen
ca. 1490
The foundation of all States is a good military, and where it does not exist, there can be neither good laws nor any other good thing.
1855
The Father and the Son have the same power and the same will.
1263-1264
The perfection of science would be to see all possible facts arise from a single cause.
1801
How sweet it is to meet again after so long an absence and to renew an old friendship when one least thinks of it!
1627
A Man with the Initials JD
1790
To be something, to be yourself and always one, you must act as you speak [...].
1762
It is easy to be mistaken when one confuses universals with particular things, [...] abstract things with realities.
1661-1675
Whatever has lasted a long time seems sacred to men; they would think themselves guilty if they cast their reckless gaze upon things sealed with the stamp of antiquity.
1766
To conceal difficulties, even to treat them as impieties in order to discredit them, is a wretched expedient devoid of all value.
1793
Allegory of the Catholic Faith
ca. 1670–72