Hard times did not startle the Romans and could not humble them. On the other hand, prosperity never made them insolent.
1855
For is what thought refuses anything other than what reason rejects?
1670
...to occupy oneself only with imitating those who, in looking at the greenness of a wood, the colors of a flower, the flight of a bird [...] persuade themselves that they are thinking of nothing.
1643-1649
It is only by means of signs [...] that we elaborate our primary ideas; without them, most [...] would never be formed, or would immediately vanish.
1817
Marble bust of a youth
ca. 140 CE
The passion of laughter is a sudden movement of vanity produced by a sudden conception of some personal advantage, compared to a weakness we notice [...] in others.
1772
One must vary the expressions to say the same thing, which helps to bring about dramatic effects.
329-323 BC
In taking up arms, the working class was fully aware that this was not its own direct struggle, but it followed the tactic [...] of not allowing any class that had risen on its shoulders [...] to consolidate its class rule, without at least opening up a wide field for the working class to fight for its own interests.
1851-1852
The investigation of crimes requires severity: it is a war that human justice wages against wickedness; but there is generosity and compassion even in war.
1766
Limestone statue of a male votary holding a bird in the left hand
ca 500–450 BCE
The satyr, this imaginary natural entity, is to civilized man what Dionysian music is to civilization.
1872
Man is here below to be happy; the Gods have given him the means to be so.
c. 108 AD
I preferred to expose good people to deploring my fate, rather than plunging them into despair.
September 57 BC
Life and death being equally indifferent to him, the collapse of the universe would cause him no emotion.
4th century BC
María Teresa (1638–1683), Infanta of Spain
1651–54
The greater part of the moral law is too sublime for the natural light to rise so high.
1623
Finally, it is such universal applause that one can say that nothing has ever started so well.
1662
To deny consequences because of their absurdity, and to pretend to maintain their principles, is [...] to fall into the most shameful of contradictions.
1st Century A.D.
The most violent struggles often pit people against each other who think exactly or almost exactly the same thing.
1934
Bronze shield boss
7th century BCE
The division of being into ten predicaments is a division into ten really different things.
c. 1270
Ronsard and Baïf praised him.
c. 1552-1553
Be so kind as to restore my common sense: I still need it sometimes.
1759-1774
It is above all exclusive pleasures that make simplicity disappear.
1776
Marble statue head of a youth
1st or 2nd century CE
he who denies nothing of what is contained in express terms in [the holy text], and who does not abandon any Church on that account, cannot be a schismatic or a heretic...
1686
There is no difference between letting one's passion be seen, and lending certain weapons for others to make themselves our master.
1636
Fortune [...] circulates with incredible rapidity, and experience teaches that it is rare to see two generations reap its favors.
1835-1840
[Love] is that insatiable and infinite desire of the soul, [...] itself moved by a perpetual and never-satiated desire.
c. 253-270 AD
Limestone plaque with two eyes in relief
480–310 BCE
The contradiction of faith and love.
1841
He who [...] reserves for himself exceptions to a rule which by its very essence is susceptible to no exception [...] is already a liar (in potentia).
1797
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
c. 375 BC
It has always been very hazardous [...] to expose a newly surrendered city to the excesses of a victorious army.
1580
Silver bust of Serapis
2nd century CE
To remain stationary, when it comes to intelligence, is to decline, for as the years accumulate, the external world casts an ever-thicker shadow upon them.
1926
One must suffer the enlightened and impartial criticisms made of the most estimable men or works [...].
1746
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
However different the acts so qualified may seem at first glance, it is impossible that they do not have some common ground. For they affect the moral conscience of nations everywhere in the same way.
1893
Mrs. Ralph Izard (Alice De Lancey, 1746/47–1832)
1747
The love of power and the love of liberty are in an eternal antagonism. Where liberty is less, the passion for power is more ardent and more shameless.
1869
There will always be a great difference between subduing a multitude and ruling a society.
1762
The desires of nature have their limits; those which deceptive opinion gives birth to have no place to stop.
63-64 AD
When men depart from the maxims of reason to embrace [...] an artificial life, no one can answer for what will please or displease them.
1751
Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Marie de Mautesson
ca. 1830
There are famous men, and there are those who deserve to be.
1851
How to prove [...] the communication, or the harmony of two substances as different as the soul and the body.
1696
The idea that the entire world, including living beings, is governed by pure mathematics is but an a priori view of the mind [...].
1919
One must judge that two things are different when one has different ideas of them, when one can think of one without thinking of the other.
1707
Saint John on Patmos, Madonna and Child Enthroned, and Death of the Virgin; The Crucifixion
1303