The devils themselves [...] preferred to return to burn in hell than to live in this world under the orders of such a woman.
1518-1527
I admire the difference between our so-called saints, and people of the world who do not affect the reputation for it, yet possess much more of the reality.
1686
If [...] moral feelings are not innate, but acquired, they are no less for that reason natural. It is natural to man to speak, to reason [...] and yet these are acquired faculties.
1861
It is impossible [to be an honest man] if one is not intimately convinced that the Church is infallible, that its Priests can neither lie nor be deluded.
1768
Group of 3 worked obsidian fragments and a raw obsidian lump
5th millennium or later
So many changes in customs and in rights, this stubbornness to keep a title with so little power, form the history of the late empire.
1756
The river Lethe is this union with the body that makes the soul forget its true nature.
c. 253-270 AD
[He] best made the Romans feel what charm eloquence adds to moral beauty, and that right is invincible when it is supported by the talent of speech.
100-120 AD
Political judgment, as it is understood in Europe, [...] violates the conservative principle of the separation of powers, and [...] constantly threatens the liberty and life of men.
1835-1840
Portrait of a Woman, Said to be Madame Charles Simon Favart (Marie Justine Benoîte Duronceray, 1727–1772)
1757
True patriotism is made of concentric layers, whose center [...] is the love of family; without the latter, only a sordid association of interests remains.
1896
Good upbringing and education, these are the sources of virtue.
c. 387 BC
Pascal's method, which at first promised to be historical and analytical, ultimately appears as logical and synthetic.
1663
We must also be able to place ourselves above morality [...], but also to be able to soar and play above it!
1882
Woman Standing Beside a Balustrade with a Poodle
ca. 1895
This power cannot legitimately be an absolute and arbitrary power with regard to their lives and their property.
1690
Some are born virtuous, it is true; but care, reflection, and effort can give to others what nature has denied them.
1636
Envy [...] forbids admiring a contemporary [...]. To humiliate the living, what praise is lavished on the dead!
1772
It is [April's] gentle hand that, from nature's bosom, releases a harvest of scents and flowers [...].
1546/1563
Bronze left leg and foot
1st or 2nd century CE
A virtuous habit, which is contracted by the repetition of acts, is not for that reason easily moved [...].
c. 1270
What would have happened if gold and silver had become as common as iron? These metals would have ceased to be the common measure of value [...].
1776
To renounce one's liberty is to renounce one's quality as a man, the rights of humanity, and even one's duties.
1762
From this I knew I was a substance whose whole essence or nature is simply to think.
1637
Head and neck from a marble figure
2700–2500 BCE
The philosophical clique is odious to people of high society, because people of high society are ignorant and frivolous, and a philosopher notices it [...].
1759-1774
What power there is in love! It dispels man's sorrows and repairs his life.
1926
The vanity of their erudition, leading them to judge before they understand, causes them to fall into gross errors of which other men are not capable.
1674-1675
Those who, from the moment they see nothing but the sky and the sea, imagine that there is no more land beyond their horizon, [are] very cowardly navigators.
1623
Box, inscribed
3900 BCE - 100 CE
Wisdom addresses things [...] that are always immutably what they are. But prudence [...] concerns those that are subject to change.
4th century BC
It is we ourselves who are the will to live: that is why we feel the need to live, whether well or badly.
1819
It is the same self which perceives distinct states, and which, by then fixing its attention more, will see these states merge into one another like snowflakes in prolonged contact with the hand.
1889
Manners spoil more easily than they are corrected.
1746
The Missionary's Adventures
ca. 1883
He who has modest tastes does not create trouble for himself; he who is concerned only with his inner progress is not affected by any deprivation.
4th century BC
You will have complete freedom to philosophize, the prince being convinced that you will not abuse it to disturb the established religion.
1661-1676
There are only passions without truth, truth without passion, heroes without heroic deeds, history without events.
1851/1852
I leave to death the test of the fruit of my studies. We shall see then whether my words come from my mouth, or from my heart.
1580
Limestone inscribed box fragment
3900 BCE - 100 CE
Therefore, tend to your soul's health as a priority; let the health of the body come second.
63-64 AD
Where to? — To nothing to be feared; to that from which you came; to friends, to relatives, to the elements.
c. 108 AD
Is it not to judge, to feel a relationship between two objects? And is it not to feel a relationship between them, to compare them? [...] Why then separate two inseparable things?
1801
For morality there is no need of an end to act well, and the law alone, which contains the formal condition of the use of freedom in general, is sufficient.
1793
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
1370–88
While we see the [ancients] make such good use of sad leisure [...] putting their consolation in the precepts of philosophy: how are we not ashamed of our vain conversations [...]?
45 BC
Alas! I am nothing, and all is deaf around me.
1968
In society, the liveliness of conversation gives pleasure even to those who do not think of taking part in it; that is why men who speak at length [...] are so unbearable.
1751
It is enough for each individual to devote himself to a special function to find himself, by the force of things, in solidarity with others.
1893
Self-Portrait of an Unidentified Artist
1785