All the contempt, all the revulsion, all the hatred that our reason attaches to crime, our sensibility attaches to affliction.
1962
The value and use of each part depends on the relation [...] to all the rest within reason itself, and, as in an organized body, the purpose of each member can only be deduced from the perfect concept of the whole.
1783
One only succeeds on the condition of letting one's nature act. Constraint prevents success.
4th century BC
No one wants to be pitied for their mistakes.
1747
Portrait of a Man
1781
[My principle] is founded [...] on the idea we have of the absolutely infinite Being, and not on there being or possibly being beings endowed with three, four, or five attributes.
1661-1676
The Representation could always be mixed with some story or comedy. [It would be a] Theater of nature and art.
1675
[The advantage is that] the oil [...] cannot spill, whatever violent movement one might make, nor the fire be extinguished by any rain or wind.
1662
[Philosophy] shows what to practice or to flee, it sits at the helm and directs our agitated course through the reefs.
63-64 AD
Hinge
3900 BCE - 100 CE
It would be impossible for there to be any failure in the world if the principles were not excellent; [...] there could be no disorder if there were not a primary and invariable rule.
c. 253-270 AD
If we do not join you in crushing the beast, it is because we are under its claw.
1741-1784
Every society is [...] moved by two different kinds of interest. The first, weaker, is common to it and the general society [...] and the second, more powerful, is absolutely particular to it.
1758
Falsehood never dictated my lies, they all came from weakness [...]. With a weak soul one can at most protect oneself from vice, but it is arrogant and reckless to dare to profess great virtues.
1776-1778
Arrowhead
ca. 480–330 BCE
There is much hidden strength and goodness that are never guessed; the most delicate dishes find no connoisseurs.
1883-1885
The experience of the past thus took away even the illusion of the future, and the people were as unhappy as they would have been if nature itself had condemned them to be so.
1768
Wherever, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.
1835-1840
A good Christian, who literally follows the conduct prescribed by the Gospel [...] can only be a useless misanthrope if he lacks energy, and a turbulent fanatic if his soul is impassioned.
1766
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1790
One cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, or because it would be wise.
1859
[He] declared to her that it was an unpardonable crime to be godmother to her own child, that she could no longer be his wife by the laws of the Church...
1764
If [propositions] are false, it is not in themselves and taken in isolation, but because of their lack of connection with previous true judgments.
1805
The knowledge of all the opinions and judgments of other men [...] is not so much a science as a history.
1674-1675
Limestone statuette of a boy holding a bird
2nd half of the 5th century BCE
Great is the truth: nothing is as strong as it.
1840
I can have no hope of approaching the truth except by departing from the paths they [the Ancients] have followed.
1649
The hatred of life [...] and of struggle is making frightful progress. People no longer even desire to enjoy themselves; they desire not to suffer: to bury themselves in a cloister or a 'clearing' [...].
1926
Neither intelligence nor pleasure can be the good, if they are lacking something.
c. 360 BC
The Circumcision
1511
In this new season, the beautiful swarm of these plundering bees flutters from flower to flower.
1546/1563
Essentially discontinuous, since it proceeds by juxtaposed words, speech only marks out from a distance the main stages of the movement of thought.
1896
This multiplication of ideas only produces obscurity, and serves only to make one lose sight of the main object.
1636
A frail individual can find a place within the complex framework of our social organization where it is possible for them to render services.
1893
Head of marble colossal female statue
17th century?
Jesus [...] entrusted, although he was a thief, the purse of the poor, to remove any pretext, any excuse for his betrayal...
1263-1264
The easiest of all is to refute a definition. [...] And the most difficult is to establish it.
End of the 4th century BC
The merchant only does good business because the youth loves pleasure.
1580
I have, from an early age, distrusted all the decisions of philosophers: & I have always felt more inclined to dispute their dogmas than to embrace them.
1742
Limestone statuette of a beardless male votary in Greek dress
late 6th century BCE
He acted like a misunderstood genius whom all the world takes for a simpleton.
1851/1852
It is [...] the duty of good and courageous citizens [...] to close every path to sedition, to fortify the ramparts of the republic.
63 BC
Be careful he does not deceive you; these parasites are not accustomed to acting in good faith.
1518
Any man who only meddles in affairs he understands reaches his goal, [...] and every skilled craftsman commands his work.
1609
Hoof, cow
7000 BCE - 330 CE
In public, do not encroach: do not claim for yourself what belongs to all.
c. 108 AD
[...] the best temperaments are those that can endure both heat and cold equally.
100-120 AD
All men desire happiness. If one asks [...] what it is that excites desire, I answer that it is Happiness, and nothing else.
1689
One finds [...] the fundamental, insurmountable antagonism between the mindset of the artist and that of the politician.
1896
Limestone horse with a rider
middle or 3rd quarter of the 6th century BCE