Just as the wise man has the absolute right to do all that reason dictates [...], so also the ignorant and the foolish have the right to do all that appetite counsels them.
1670
Born mortal, you gave birth to mortals: you, corruptible and passing matter [...], did you expect that from such fragile elements strength and immutability would be engendered?
37 AD - 41 AD
It is always the same problem to solve, how Italy did not secure its freedom, and did not forever close its doors to foreigners.
1756
Hope makes more dupes than skill.
1746
The Tears of Saint Peter
ca. 1612–13
A man who is deprived of any advantage never loses the memory of it: the slightest need is enough to revive it.
1513-1519
Everyone must strive to live as honorably as possible and not dishonor the reputation of their ancestors.
c. 387 BC
One must engage in self-contemplation to know whether one is a wild beast, more [...] violent than a Typhon, or a being partaking of a divine nature [...].
1st Century A.D.
It is characteristic of our mind to form general propositions of knowledge from particular ones.
17th century
Marble portrait, probably of Matidia, niece of the emperor Trajan and mother of Sabina, wife of the emperor Hadrian
117–138 CE
Sensation has for its general condition that the universal animal be sympathetic to itself; without this, how could one thing partake in the power of another thing from which it is very distant?
c. 253-270 AD
If you ask me what is best in the world, what shall I name? [...] Our faculty of judgment and will, when it is on the right path.
c. 108 AD
An energetic depiction must be compared with the language that a dying [person] spoke.
c. 1552-1553
[People] consequently create new needs for themselves, and they consume more than they did before.
1776
Marble head of a young woman from a funerary statue
late 4th century BCE
This power [to punish] is not absolute and arbitrary [...], it is to inflict on him the penalties that calm reason and pure conscience naturally dictate and ordain, penalties proportionate to his fault.
1690
I have no money, but I have no use for it.
1741-1784
There is, in certain writers, a charm; with equal merit, what comes from their pen pleases more.
1926
Fanaticism and enthusiasm form the basis of Christ's morality; the virtues he recommends tend to isolate men, to plunge them into a somber mood, and often to make them harmful to their fellow beings.
1766
Bronze pendant in the form of a paired couple
8th century BCE
We call habit the permanent disposition, the way of being, that arises from frequent repetition: this is the true meaning of the word habit.
1801
If there are partial societies, it is necessary to multiply their number and prevent their inequality.
1762
This experience [...] has changed for me not this or that idea [...], but infinitely more, my whole perspective on things, the very feeling I have of life.
1934-1942
The petty bourgeoisie, great in boasting, is powerless for action and fearful of any hazardous undertaking.
1851-1852
Terracotta statuette of a woman
2nd century BCE
The affections of the human heart [...] are like the feet; and earthly things affect us [...] to such an extent that if we claim to be without any sin, we deceive ourselves.
1263-1264
We are bound to our body, our parents, our friends, our prince, our homeland, by ties that we cannot break.
1674-1675
If a man [born to rule] feels compassion, well! that compassion has value! But what does the compassion of those who suffer matter!
1886
One argues poorly for the honesty and beauty of an action from its utility.
1580
Steamboats in the Port of Rouen
1896
But when, on the contrary, one is the cause of this ignorance oneself [...] then one is guilty; and it is with reason that one is [...] responsible.
4th century BC
The essence of religion in general.
1841
The food that would satisfy a dwarf [...] would only whet the appetite of a giant.
1636
One could use [amber] to preserve [...] the bodies of illustrious men. This material [...] is quite rare; but great men are even rarer.
1623
Bronze handle of a hydria (water jar)
ca. 460–450 BCE
The wicked are at bottom the greatest dupes, for they have sacrificed the happiness of enjoying [...] the pleasure of being virtuous, to acquire trifles of no value.
1751
The object in itself thus remains always unknown; but if the connection of representations [...] receives universal validity through a concept of the understanding, the object is determined by this relation, and the judgment is objective.
1783
[A God] who would transform himself into a world [...] to endure misery, suffering, and death, without measure or end, in the form of countless millions of living beings [...].
1851
In the body of Tuo the Ugly, there lived a perfect latent virtue. It was this virtue that drew people to him, despite the repulsive form of his body.
4th century BC
Wall painting: frieze supporting trellis, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase
last decade of the 1st century BCE
Empty space is not an attribute without a subject; for by this space we do not mean a space where there is nothing, but a space without bodies.
1715-1716
Each of them willingly recognizes all his fellow citizens as his equals, but he never receives more than a very small number of them among his friends or guests.
1835-1840
We want activity, instead of spreading itself over a large surface, to be concentrated and to gain in intensity what it loses in breadth.
1893
One must be a small man to desire small things.
1758
Fragmentary terracotta relief of a reclining figure
late 6th–early 5th century BCE
The interest involved is that of security, the most vital of all interests [...]. Nothing would have any value to us [...] if we could be deprived of a good an instant after having possessed it.
1861
We know that the jackdaw is naturally a thief: to entrust gold to it would be to want to lose it.
59 BC
The role of the brain in the operation of memory: it does not serve to preserve the past, but first to mask it, then to allow what is practically useful to show through.
1919
It is also intended that both the torch-bearers and lantern-bearers be known persons with a domicile in this city [...], without which they will not be accepted.
1662
Colossal marble head of the emperor Augustus
ca. 14–30 CE