all those who find themselves in the streets [...] will be able to take the said carriages at whichever place on the said route is most convenient for them...
1662
[The] real development, the object of science, must be known through the construction of its concept, [...] against the false evidences of representation, the kingdom of ideology.
1841
Wherever a single [entity] holds power, the good of others is cared for only to the extent that this good may be useful to the one that is master.
1677
If he is a man, he is an animal; but he is a man, therefore he is an animal.
c. 1270
Chalcedony amulet, thunderbolt
664–334 BCE
The more one babbles, the more one speaks all at once, the more praise one will deserve.
16th century
It is one of the most stupid prejudices of our time to grant spiritual value to reputations based on narrowly specialized work [...].
1957
Sometimes a negligent or wasteful [man] will be forced to sell his [assets] to a more careful or more thrifty one, who will continually make new acquisitions.
1776
A posteriori and a priori denote [...] differences in nature or value, but not a chronological anteriority or posteriority.
1900
Chisel
670 BCE - 330 CE
[...] 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
Of all the peoples in the world, the most difficult to contain and to direct is a nation of office-seekers.
1835-1840
Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
1859
A musician who writes and thinks was then nonsense to everyone; they cried out: he is a theorist who wants to transform art with subtle ideas, let him be stoned!
1876
Portrait of an Officer
1784
We enjoy only people; the rest is nothing.
1746
A woman, when she is great, is so of her own accord. She owes nothing but to the heaven that formed her [...].
1741-1784
I have seen many people driven mad by fear; even in the most level-headed, [...] it causes terrible disturbances of the mind.
1580
There is a conflict of judgments [within us], some perceived, others unnoticed, and it is always the most habitual that prevail, often wrongly.
1801
Terracotta plank-shaped figurine
ca. 1900–1800 BCE
The most beautiful, most pleasant, and most necessary of all our knowledge is undoubtedly the knowledge of ourselves.
1674-1675
Rhetoric is the Art of deceiving men.
1689
As reason belongs to all and good judgment to a few, it follows that man is given over to all illusions.
1819
So many men, so many boroughs, so many cities, so many nations sometimes endure a single tyrant, who has no power other than that which they give him.
c. 1552-1553
Portrait of a Man (Sir Ralph Sadler?)
1535
To promise and to keep are two different things.
1764
Although a happy quickness of mind is a gift of nature, art can nevertheless help and perfect it.
1636
Demerit (demeritum) is not simply a negation; it is a negative virtue (meritum negativum).
1763
One must judge not only by necessary consequences, but also by probability; and this is what is called judging according to one's conscience.
329-323 BC
Horse and Buggy
1909
To achieve wealth, the shortest path is the contempt of wealth.
63-64 AD
He was not without suspicions and fears regarding him.
100-120 AD
Do you want to [...] make happy marriages? Smother prejudices, forget human institutions, and consult Nature.
1762
[...] one never does evil except through error or ignorance, and [...] the guilty are merely unfortunate blind men.
c. 108 AD
Two Women Embracing
1913
One must eat to live, and not live to eat.
86-82 BC
[The concept] presupposes a perfect knowledge of all the best of antiquity [...] and yet [it is] the fruit of his vigils, his meditations, and his own research.
1627
I am not so accustomed to the favors of fortune as to expect anything extraordinary from it; it is enough for me when it does not send me [...] accidents that would give cause for sadness to the greatest philosopher in the world.
1643-1649
To get an adequate idea of totemism, one must not confine oneself to the limits of the clan, but consider the tribe in its totality.
1912
Raising the Wind
1812
It is certain that perhaps nothing is more absurd and more barbarous than duels, but those who strive to justify them claim that they maintain consideration and politeness.
1751
[...] the qualities that constitute the essence of the body.
c. 253-270 AD
What is more vague than the word 'crime'? For this collective term to evoke a clear idea [...], one must apply it to a theft, a murder, or some similar action.
1772
I would rather die than slavishly beg for my life and be granted an existence far more dreadful than death.
4th century BC
Colossal marble head of the emperor Augustus
ca. 14–30 CE
There are changes in customs that, when they are in the air, remain there for a long time; others remain there forever.
1926
The superior man gazes into the depths of the azure sky, into the depths of the terrestrial abysses, [...] without his vital spirits being in the least disturbed.
4th century BC
Under a God who has revealed himself only to confound human reason, everything must be incomprehensible, everything must defy common sense.
1766
[The essence of liberty consists in] a principle of action [...] entirely distinct from the motive or the reason which the agent has in view.
1715-1716
Virgin and Child
1475–99