The notion of an absolute being is, in the hands of priests who abuse it, a destruction of all morality.
1770
In all moral determinations, the circumstance of public utility is always what is principally in view.
1751
The poet produces the beautiful by fixing his attention on reality. So does the act of love.
1947
When the mind focuses on an idea with great application, considering it from all sides [...] this is what is called study or contention of mind.
1704
Wedding Procession
1841
No one having such a power over his own life, no one could communicate it and give it to another.
1690
Let men not flatter themselves [...] into imagining that after having distinguished themselves by a thousand proofs of talent and virtue they will be assured of general esteem.
1620
Representation, as a product of the conscious element, is the space of all philosophical illusions.
1841
[...] to place a metaphor well is to have regard for the relations of resemblance.
c. 335 BC
François Joseph Lefebvre (1755–1820)
1800
...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
The moral conceptual world of 'guilt,' 'conscience,' 'duty,' 'sacredness of duty' has its origin [in the law of obligations]; in its beginnings, [...] it was watered extensively and abundantly with blood.
1887
To tempt cupidity, it [the government] devised tontines.
1776
Great thoughts come from the heart.
1747
Marble grave relief with a funerary banquet and departing warriors
2nd century BCE
If it were possible for the Sovereign [...] to possess executive power, right and fact would be so confounded that it would no longer be known what is law and what is not.
1762
One of two things is true: either the thing one mocks deserves mockery, or it does not.
c. 1660
It appears that during the following century, the practice was established [...] of maintaining, at the expense of the inhabitants, lanterns at the crossroads and in the middle of each street.
1662
God as a merciful being.
1841
Two Young Girls at the Piano
1892
For a long time I sought to conceal that I was a philosopher; and that served me well.
c. 108 AD
[...] the paths through which the spirits flow are smoother and more united by the habit of practice[...]
1674-1675
[...] it is better to suffer an injury than to inflict one.
45 BC
The cruelty of the multitude is directed at those it suspects of wanting to usurp the common good; that of the prince pursues all those he regards as enemies of his private good.
1513-1519
Gustave Boyer (b. 1840) in a Straw Hat
1870–71
It is with reason that the Philosophers place Riches in intelligible things, and Poverty in sensible things.
c. 253-270 AD
This phenomenon [centralization] occurs with mechanical necessity, and moreover it is useful, for it corresponds to the new state of affairs.
1893
He who understands the respect due to life exposes his own neither for the love of wealth nor for the horror of poverty. [...] Whereas the common person exposes themselves lightly for a tiny, insignificant profit.
4th century BC
Writings about the child have too often seen in this little being only a man in reduction, instead of the young animal [...] who possesses all human powers, but only in a virtual state.
1926
Fragment of a statuette of a woman
4th–3rd centuries BCE
There are as many differences of opinion, and as many burning discussions, about what is just as about what is useful to society.
1861
It is of the essence of the things of the mind not to lend themselves to measurement.
1919
All these declamations amount to proving that a thief should never eat the dinner he has taken, nor wear the coat he has stolen [...].
1764
Nothing is so contrary to my style as a continuous and extended narrative; I am short-winded and, for everything I do, I must start over several times.
1580
Wheat Fields
ca. 1670
It is neither what we do, nor the events of our life that are our work: but what no one thinks to take as such: I mean our nature, our way of being.
1836
Wherever he turned, he met with blows and saw swords leveled at his face and eyes, and was driven, like a wild beast, struggling amidst the hands of his assailants.
100-120 AD
The noun [...] is always the subject of the proposition; the verb is its attribute; and the other elements [...] are but modifiers of these, which sheds great light on the act of judging.
1805
If men grew accustomed to mixing [...] serious moments of reflection [...], their joys would perhaps be less noisy, and would give way to that serene calm of a soul for whom there are no more unexpected accidents.
1760
Bronze knife with ram's-head handle
ca. 1st century CE
The copyist, unintelligent or inattentive, has lost [...] the author's meaning.
c. 1552-1553
[It is] the opinion [...] that words, arranged in a certain way, can alter the will of their god, and oblige him to change his immutable decrees.
1766
One can never satisfy men by concerning oneself only with their general good without taking into account their vanity and their private interests.
1893
The inner sight that the Holy Spirit was to give as a consolation was far preferable.
1263-1264
Statuette of a woman
6th century BCE
All pleasure and all pain are born in the soul.
c. 360 BC
The science of common things is the science of mediocre people; and sometimes the man of genius is, in this respect, grossly ignorant.
1758
The decisive test of a heroic heart is when it is free to take revenge on an enemy at will.
1636
Genius! Its glory grows unceasingly; and [...] everything connected to its memory is welcome.
63-64 AD
Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist
ca. 1497