Imprudence [...] excites one to defend others, while one neither knows how nor is able to protect oneself from danger.
1513-1519
Syllogisms made from simple propositions are better understood than those made from compound propositions.
c. 1270
I am so bad a flatterer, that I am never more at ease than when I can freely give my opinion on the things that pass before our eyes.
1574
Each type of people has its own education, which can serve to define it in the same way as its moral, political, and religious organization.
1922
The Newborn Baby
1675
Precepts are not given to be practiced, but practice is prescribed for the understanding of precepts. They are scales.
1947
Any useless law [...] does not remedy any evil, and creates a new one, by providing a new opportunity to fail [...] in the respect due to public authority.
1797-1798
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
It is customary to call youth the happy time, and old age the sad time of life. This would be true if the passions brought happiness.
1851
Saints John the Baptist and Matthew
possibly 1433
One desires above all what is lacking.
329-323 BC
As for me, I will take the safest course [...] and will not make use of it.
1643-1649
[...] that is what has preserved our innocence and our felicity.
1759
I recognize this main difference between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance and the former on wisdom.
1661-1676
Madame la Comtesse de Boufflers and Thérèse
mid-1760s
After the freedom to act alone, the most natural to man is that of combining his efforts with the efforts of his fellow men and of acting in common.
1835-1840
What is presumption in the weak, is elevation in the strong.
1746
It takes great qualities to make a hero.
1636
Man is free when he exercises the faculty of the reasonable soul [...]. He is subject to necessity [...] when he exercises the faculties of the irrational soul and the body.
c. 253-270 AD
Statuette of a cock, 2?
7000 BCE - 30 BCE
When men wish to solve riddles [...], their haste and impatience cause them to miss the solution.
1609
Listen to the protestations of men, there is nothing of which they are so assured as the truth of their religion. Look at their conduct: you will doubt they ever had any religion at all.
1757
There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence: to find that limit [...] is as indispensable [...] as protection against political despotism.
1859
Public esteem is the only one worthy of envy, the only one desirable, since it is always a gift of public gratitude, and consequently the proof of a real merit.
1758
Patera
mid 6th century BCE
The artist triumphs over his faith, rises above it by making the objects of his faith objects of art.
1842-1845
An artist [...] only reaches the final summit of his greatness when he knows how to look down on himself and his art—when he knows how to laugh at himself.
1887
It is the constant tendency of capital to [...] prolong the working day as much as possible, because surplus labor, and [...] the profit derived from it, will increase.
1865
If no sobs can bring back to life what is no more; if destiny is immutable [...], let us cease a grief that would be fruitless.
37 AD - 41 AD
Bronze patera (salver)
ca. 550 BCE
I am one of those over whom imagination has great sway. [...] I would gladly spend my life in the company of healthy and cheerful people.
1580
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
c. 375 BC
[...] his soul, which is good, will win over his head; he will end up not replying to me, and loving me more.
1741-1784
[He] had that natural quality which, according to Plato, constitutes literary and philosophical aptitude: he was capable of embracing all sciences, and disdained no kind of study or literary knowledge.
100-120 AD
Saint Nicholas of Bari
mid-1430s
It seems to me that true love is the most chaste of all bonds.
1761
Nothing enters our mind from the outside, and it is a bad habit we have of thinking as if our soul received some messenger species and as if it had doors and windows.
1686
Displeasure is not simply a lack of pleasure; it is a positive cause that destroys [...] the pleasure resulting from another cause, which is why I call it a negative pleasure.
1763
Our character is still us [...].
1889
Wall paintings on black ground: from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase
last decade of the 1st century BCE
The universal Propositions of which we can have certain knowledge of their truth or falsehood do not relate to existence.
1689
[...] wherever we believe it is important for us to know the truth [...], we never proceed lightly. But when it comes to the [...] cause of our happiness or our misfortune, [...] only then do we act lightly and at random!
c. 108 AD
It is false that we are worthy of others' love. It is unjust that we should want it.
1670
Books are but assemblies of words. Words convey ideas. But true ideas derive from a non-sensible principle, and can hardly be better expressed in words than it can.
4th century BC
Bronze thymiaterion (incense burner)
ca. 325–275 BCE
In Religion, [duties] are those which are founded on the relations that exist between men and their Priests. From which we see that it is up to the Priests alone to determine the duties of a good Christian.
1768
Philosophers themselves have affected to be obscure. Each sect has had an interest in devising ambiguous or meaningless terms. It is by this means that they have sought to hide the weak points of so many systems.
1746
Debauchery has overcome modesty, audacity has overcome fear, delirium has overcome reason.
66 BC
It is not uncommon to see two old friends call each other scoundrels, but it is rare that they are not both right.
1926
The Night-Hag Visiting Lapland Witches
1796