By nature, the city is a multitude; but if it strives for unity, from a city it becomes a family; from a family, an individual. [...] Were it possible to realize this system, it should be avoided, under penalty of annihilating the city.
c. 350 BCE
To reduce life to laws and methods is to take on a difficult task, and most often a frivolous one.
1742
Specialization, which makes the scholar sullen, makes science sterile.
1882
Nothing characterizes a bad reign like flattery carried to excess [...].
1746
Fragmentary marble inscription
ca. 425–424 BCE
A miracle is an effect contrary to the constant laws of nature; consequently, God himself, without offending his wisdom, cannot perform miracles.
1766
One does not truly despise what one dares not despise to their face. Secret contempt is a proof of weakness [...].
1772
The savings bank system is a triple machine of despotism: [...] the savings bank is the golden chain by which the government holds a large part of the workers.
1849
The diversity of our opinions does not arise from some being more reasonable than others, but solely from the fact that we conduct our thoughts along different paths, and do not consider the same things.
1637
Limestone chest with incised decoration
8th century BCE?
God is dead: but, given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown.
1882
In the body of Tuo the Ugly, there lived a perfect latent virtue. It was this virtue that drew people to him, despite the repulsive form of his body.
4th century BC
Duration and movement are measured with the utmost precision, thanks to extension.
1817
A thousand signs show that the people of our time had long been starved of obedience. But this has been taken advantage of to give them slavery.
1943
Limestone statuette of a male votary
probably mid-6th century BCE
Oh, how contrary are the wishes of those who love us, and all the more so when they are granted!
63-64 AD
It would be supremely absurd for the one who pursues a goal to achieve it less than the one who does not bother with it.
c. 108 AD
[He] found he had made too great an expense; and, wishing to share it with someone, he began to beg for a dinner guest.
1513-1527
It is not possible for men to conclude with certainty the degree of others' virtuous intentions from their actions. He who sees into the depths of our soul has reserved this judgment for Himself alone.
1763
Marble portrait bust of a boy
ca. 35–50 CE
There is a kind of ignorance that is born of extreme publicity.
1835-1840
It would be absurd to say that whoever writes in French thinks in French; character [...] does not transform as easily as language.
1926
Those who [...] take part in a race must indeed use all their strength to win [...]; but they are not permitted to lay a hand on them to stop them [...].
1580
The Bible does not owe its character as a holy book to the words and discourses it contains, or to the language in which it is written, but to the very things that intelligence discovers in it.
1670
Still Life with Flowers and Fruit
1866
I am not a hack writer, a textbook manufacturer [...] I strive only for the truth.
1819
Not virtue itself, but the idea of virtue is innate.
1704
How has this stubborn will to serve become so deeply rooted that it now seems that the very love of liberty is not so natural.
c. 1552-1553
[Evil] consists in privation, that is, in what the efficient cause does not do. This is why the Scholastics used to call the cause of evil deficient.
c. 253-270 AD
The Departure of the Gondola
mid-1760s
Error [...] consists only in a hasty consent of the will, which allows itself to be dazzled by some false glimmer.
1674-1675
I cannot see what I see; I see clearly only what I recall, and I have wit only in my memories.
1782-1789
The necessity of lighting the streets for a longer period of time was soon felt.
1662
Since nature has placed self-interest, pride, and all passions in the hearts of men, it is not surprising that we have seen [...] an almost continuous series of crimes and disasters.
1756
Axehead
ca. 3200–2000 BCE
Any mediating being between God and the universe is therefore a being of the imagination.
1841
In a monarchy, judicial offices must be for sale; because if they were not, intrigue would sell them, and the administration of justice would be sheer robbery.
1776
To excel in theory, one must resolve to be inferior to many others in practice; and what one gains on one side, one loses on the other.
1609
The dreams of a sleeping man are composed, in my opinion, only of the ideas that this man has had while awake, although for the most part strangely joined together.
1689
The Crucifixion
1389
In small towns, anyone who seeks to emancipate themselves from received customs meets with resistance that is sometimes very strong.
1893
[The people] were indignant at these disorders; and [the leader] neither ignored nor approved of them; but he was forced, to achieve his political ends, to use such agents.
100-120 AD
Society presents such a tranquil appearance that the soul, tired of tormenting itself, yields to a security that is treacherous, in truth, but almost impossible to resist.
1741-1784
If, by freely expressing [...] the opinion I have of myself, I must offend the judges, I would rather die [...].
4th century BC
Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Lady Agnes Anne Wrothesley
1791
Every person maintains that equality is dictated by justice, unless they think that utility requires inequality.
1861
There is a threefold whole: the universal, the potential, and the integral whole...
c. 1270
In these unfortunate times, they dare not raise their own voices to denounce the crime. [...] they remain silent, frightened by the danger.
79 BC
In man, the most elevated thing is a vast and luminous intelligence, the principle of his best-conducted operations [...].
1636
Head of a marble Aphrodite statuette
3rd century BCE