The will is but a desire that is not fought, that has its object in its power, or at least believes it has [...].
1746
The apostles agree on religion itself, but they are far from agreeing on its foundations.
1670
The time that is no more is ours, and nothing is in a safer place than that which has been.
63-64 AD
Be that as it may, you have examined a very important truth for those who research natural things, and by this examination, have obliged the public, and me in particular [...].
1653-1662
The Meditation on the Passion
ca. 1490
Perhaps [...] it is out of benevolence that the god grants me [...] to end my life not only at the most suitable time, but in the least painful way.
4th century BC
The desire to love the beauty of the world in a human being is essentially the desire for the Incarnation. It is by mistake that it believes itself to be something else.
1942
The man is nothing, the work is everything.
1888
When ambition [...] sought to retain and increase power, without caring to consider for what end it had been committed, it was thought necessary to examine [...] the origin and rights of government.
1690
A Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters and an Imaginary Castle
ca. 1615–20
[...] languages are as necessary for thinking as for speaking, for having ideas as for expressing them.
1801
Neither the reminders of our past life proved anything: someone could have discovered our secrets.
1926
The only collective sentiments that have become more intense are those whose object is not social things, but the individual.
1893
It is [April's] gentle hand that, from nature's bosom, releases a harvest of scents and flowers [...].
1546/1563
The Three Graces
1807
Works [of art] are mirrors; when a monkey looks into them, they cannot reflect the features of an apostle.
1851
The material interest of the bourgeoisie [...] is intimately interwoven with the maintenance of this extensive and intricate [state] machinery. It is here that it finds posts for its surplus population [...].
1851/1852
The lie [...] is properly the corrupted point in human nature.
1796
People who are not afraid, in times of revolution, are like princes in the army; they make a great impression with very ordinary actions, because the particular position they occupy naturally sets them apart from the crowd.
1893
Head of a Black African youth
7000 BCE - 30 BCE
The creation of the world means that it is but a phantom, a nullity. With the beginning of a thing, its end is also necessarily posited.
1841
The syllogism is a discourse in which, certain principles having been laid down [...], a result must follow from what has been laid down and agreed upon.
c. 1270
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
There must be only one element, and one and the same matter, for all the qualities that change into one another.
c. 350 B.C.E.
A Man with the Initials RH
1775
The markets make the law for the government.
1776
There is no longer a contradiction between freedom and necessity, between idealism and realism.
17th century
All deliberations [...] shall be decided by the minority of members present; [...] those who obtain the fewest votes shall always be the ones who prevail.
16th century
Aristotle [...] recognizes [Zeno of Elea] as the inventor of dialectics.
45 BC
Colossal marble head of the emperor Augustus
ca. 14–30 CE
Men are not content with the obedience of women, they arrogate to themselves a right over their feelings. [...] they neglect nothing to enslave their minds.
1869
The principle of the need for a sufficient reason for a thing to exist, for an event to happen, for a truth to obtain. Is this a principle that needs proof?
1715-1716
A man who has learned to divest himself even of his personality can travel the entire world without experiencing conflict.
4th century BC
She was charmed by a man who made conversation with her, and who doubted everything.
1766
Bronze patera (shallow bowl with handle)
late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
What am I then? A living being endowed with reason. Now, what is asked of such a being?
c. 108 AD
If by some enchantment I suddenly found you beside me, there are moments when I could die of joy.
1759-1774
One must save the sharpness and brilliance of the mind for subjects that deserve it, just as the lion reserves its efforts for dangers worthy of it.
1636
[...] man takes pleasure in discovering an unexpected resemblance between things that seemed disparate, in which consists the excellence of imagination [...].
1772
Limestone head of a female votary
late 1st century BCE(?)
we will fulfill all the duties that humanity inspires in us.
1627
Often, far above our heads, we see a beautiful village; and beneath our feet, as if at the Antipodes, another [...]. It does not seem to me that any painting can represent such a rich landscape.
1774
Placed back in the evolution of life, [instinct and intelligence] appear as two divergent and complementary activities.
1932
[We must distinguish] possession, which is merely the effect of force [...], from property, which can be founded only on a positive title.
1762
Top of a marble funerary relief with portrait busts of a young man and an elderly woman
ca. 138–141 CE
Truth is only perceived and generated in the fermentation of contrary opinions.
1758
It is not our senses that deceive us, but our will that deceives us through its hasty judgments.
1674-1675
The rampart that protected his life, the instrument that made his success, was his eloquence...
100-120 AD
There is nothing which is, in itself, beautiful or ugly, worthy of love or hatred [...] these different qualifications depend solely on the sentiments and affections of each man [...].
1742
Terracotta statuette of an actor
late 5th–early 4th century BCE