Would you then prefer to see me die justly rather than unjustly?
4th century BC
It is a political law of nature that those who are under any power of ancient origin never begin by complaining of the power itself, but only of its oppressive exercise.
1869
Reason demands [...] that we judge them [the ancients] more ignorant than the new philosophers, since, in our time, the world is two thousand years older and has more experience.
1674-1675
We must resign ourselves to knowing little if we do not want to be ignorant of everything.
1882
Mrs. Vanderbank
ca. 1730
The man of proven and perfect virtue desires no other glory than that which is the fruit of public trust, and which opens the way for him to great undertakings.
100-120 AD
Their zeal for the glory of God is not a zeal directed by knowledge.
1263-1264
The spirit of invention stirs [...] in an unregulated manner; it seeks. The spirit of method arranges, orders, and supposes that everything has been found...
1773
No generous mind stops within itself. It always aims for and goes beyond its strength.
1580
The Flight into Egypt
1470s
A soul [...] returns almost whole to the eyes of anyone who reads them attentively, no less in the white spaces dividing the text than in the text itself...
1926
Far from feasting on acquired glory, [a great heart] forgets it to always seek a new one.
1636
[Under tyranny], virtues were death sentences. [...] the slave was the spy of his master, the freedman of his patron, the friend of his friend.
1758
Social life, wherever it is normal, is spontaneous: and if it is abnormal, it cannot last.
1893
Element
7000 BCE - 330 CE
Thus, blind and confident in my hopes, I have always been passionate about what was to cause my misfortune.
1782-1789
Whoever asks for a greater certainty does not know what he is asking for.
1704
When a matter is begun, and the main point is agreed upon, I see no profit in seeking delays.
1643-1649
The essence of religion in general.
1841
Bronze left leg and foot
1st or 2nd century CE
Other people note what they wish to remember. Here, Kant had noted what he must forget: 'Mem. — February 1802 — the name Lampe is no longer to be remembered.'
1827
[A prince] cannot help you, either because distance [...] does not allow it, or because the disorders in his own states require the use of all his forces.
1513-1519
Either this cause is comprised in the nature and definition of the thing itself [...], or it is external to it.
1661-1676
One calls deliberation those desires and fears which succeed one another for as long as it is in our power to do or not to do the action upon which we are deliberating.
1772
Bolt
7000 BCE - 330 CE
My dear master, [...] you are always astonished by everything.
1759
No one is unaware that there are two entrances by which opinions are received into the soul, [...] the understanding and the will. The most natural is that of the understanding, [...] but the most common [...] is that of the will.
circa 1658
Knowledge kills action; for action, the mirage of illusion is necessary — this is what Hamlet teaches us.
1872
It is quite certain that we never know anything but our perceptions, and that we never see anything in this world but our own ideas [...].
1805
Saint George
1472
If we could trace all primitive nouns back to their source, we would find that there is no abstract noun that does not derive from some adjective or verb.
1746
There is nothing superfluous (except for the overly delicate).
1574
What, indeed, is more fortunate than to be able [...] to converse with the most eloquent characters, with the best people who ever lived?
45 BC
I esteem a man whose self-love [...] is so directed as to give him a concern for others and to make himself useful to society.
1751
Peasants Dancing and Feasting
ca. 1660
This idea of unity [...] was, in fact, very widespread, especially in the smaller states.
1851-1852
Congress shall make no law relative to the establishment of a religion, or to prohibit one; nor may it restrict the freedom of speech or of the press.
1835-1840
Oh, how contrary are the wishes of those who love us, and all the more so when they are granted!
63-64 AD
Is there not for man what the race is for the horse [...]? Is there not honesty, loyalty, justice?
c. 108 AD
Charles de Saint-Radegonde, called Charles Coguin, Abbot of Anchin
ca. 1511–20
God, my soul needs the flesh to hide its shame, the flesh that eats and sleeps, without future and without past.
1968
Through irony, one makes a jest for one's own sake, while the buffoon is concerned with another.
329-323 BC
Wisdom knows how to effortlessly bring together all conditions and all ages [...].
1746
Do all souls form a single soul?
c. 253-270 AD
Lead figure of a goddess with spear and aegis, possibly Athena
6th–5th century BCE
Just as rest clarifies water, so it enlightens the vital spirits, among them intelligence.
4th century BC
In the pilgrimage of this life, man finds everywhere the opportunity to learn and subjects for meditation.
1609
A moral necessity has meaning and value only in relation to a threat of punishment or a promise of reward.
1840
The great and unfortunate errors [...] on the matter of government, have arisen [...] from the fact that these different powers have been confounded.
1690
The "Kearsarge" at Boulogne
1864