It is therefore always only a matter of receiving impressions and seeing what they contain.
1805
What makes us laugh [...] happens to us all [...] No one recognizes himself as stingy, no one as greedy.
63-64 AD
Since all Citizens are equal by the social contract, what all must do, all can prescribe [...].
1762
In a word, let us distinguish between an art of cultivating sciences and an art of inventing them.
1620
Bronze tripod base for a thymiaterion (incense burner)
ca. 475–450 BCE
We know that the bad tendencies of human nature are kept within their limits only when they are not allowed to run free.
1869
It was not a judgment [...]. It was an abuse of force; [...] a catastrophe, a storm, anything but a judgment, a discussion, a trial.
66 BC
We propose to call this type of solidarity mechanical [...] by analogy with the cohesion which unites the elements of inorganic bodies.
1893
The sole defect, in a sense, of all works, is that they are too long.
1746
The Virgin Annunciate
possibly 1445–50
Penal colonies do not reform [...] by moralizing the individual sent there. They change him by giving him interests other than those of crime, by creating a future for him; he does not reform if he harbors the idea of return.
1864-1866
Is a man well-fed, well-clothed? The surplus of his happiness depends on the manner [...] in which he fills [...] the interval that separates a satisfied need from a returning one.
1772
I have always remained firm in the resolution [...] to accept nothing as true which did not seem to me clearer and more certain than [...] the demonstrations of the geometers.
1637
The divine right, in other words the right relative to sacred matters, depends absolutely on the decrees of the sovereign, and [...] it is for him alone to interpret it and have it respected.
1670
Limestone chest with incised decoration
8th century BCE?
[...] one sees people in the streets waiting for a carriage [...], but when it arrives, it is found to be full: this is unfortunate, but one takes comfort, for one knows that another will come.
1662
Where there is charity, what can we lack? But if charity does not exist, what compensation can remain for us?
1263-1264
Human intelligence progresses very slowly [...] and it is good for it to sometimes look back, to see where it started from, and to better guide its steps into the future.
c. 350 B.C.E.
The proof of the victory one has won over one's passions is not to be gentle and moderate towards one's friends [...], but to show clemency and humanity towards those who have done us injustices.
100-120 AD
A Patrician Couple
1730
[The] philosophy of the eternal return.
1888
The entire hierarchy must be directed towards a goal whose value and even greatness is felt by all, from the highest to the lowest.
1943
We have a knowledge of our own existence by Intuition, of the existence of God by Demonstration, and of other Things by Sensation.
1689
[Theology], this divine science, has often only appeared more entangled as a result.
1768
The Muse: History
ca. 1865
Study yourself sometimes to behave as if you were sick, to know one day how to behave like a healthy man.
c. 108 AD
The soul, purified of all evil and reunited with the Father, would be eternally sheltered from the evils of this world.
c. 253-270 AD
To be 'an end in itself' is an inconceivable thing, a contradictio in adjecto. To be an end is to be the object of a will.
1840
One is not worthy of someone when one can do without them.
1759-1774
Portrait of a Man
1537
Peoples are subject to fewer errors than princes, and one should trust them much more surely than the latter.
1855
There is opposition between two things when, one being posited, the other is thereby suppressed. This opposition is twofold: it is either logical, through contradiction, or real, that is, without contradiction.
1763
Through freedom of trade, [the provinces] are all at the same time both agricultural and merchant. This is because, in each, all activities are pursued, and none knows exclusive preferences.
1776
If we place ourselves in the heights, above the turning wheel, [one country] is not destroyed, [another] is not prosperous. Everything [...] passes through the two phases of ruin and prosperity.
4th century BC
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
1370–88
There is nothing new under the sun. [...] feminism was a widespread idea in the time of Louis XIV, already known under Louis XIII, almost popularized under Louis XV.
1926
It is not the province of the moralist to decide whether [men] reason more justly on this than on any other thing; it is enough that the original principles of censure or blame are uniform.
1751
The swiftest way to glory should be to do for conscience's sake what we do for glory's sake.
1580
[The middle classes] had never seen the workers act as a class or defend their own distinct class interests.
1851-1852
Philip IV (1605–1665) in Parade Armor
ca. 1628
Germany, divided [...], forgot all the ancient customs of chivalry, and the spirit of intrigue destroyed them in Italy.
1756
A relation between two terms is equivalent to one of them.
1919
The best way to defend the truth [...] is not to argue, for in the end it is better [...] to leave [false scholars] in their errors than to attract their aversion.
1674-1675
You suspected that my explanation would be contrary to the very different idea we have of mind and body; but [...] no one has better established their independence.
1696
Spatula
3900 BCE - 100 CE
By setting [the fine], it would be to admit guilt.
4th century BC
A hero never appears greater than in circumstances capable of obscuring the glory of anyone other than himself.
1636
[...] making oneself the sole cherished object of the Supreme Being is a much more powerful pride than that which aspires only to be cherished and admired by present and future men. Christian pride hides itself; it has the appearance of its opposite.
1841
These swallows that go [...] are the messengers of spring.
1546/1563
Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and Francis
1495