one admired with what skill Fortune knows how to bring about one thing through another, to bring together the most distant facts, to link them with the same chain, when they seemed to differ most from one another [...].
100-120 AD
To classify crime among the phenomena of normal sociology [...] is to affirm that it is a factor of public health, an integral part of all healthy societies.
1895
In the instructive genre, beauty, elegance of diction [...] are but a secondary merit.
1758
Speech and language are the indispensable instruments of all clear thought. But like any means, [...] these instruments are at the same time a hindrance and a fetter.
1819
Terracotta statuette of an actor
late 5th–early 4th century BCE
I see no other remedy for this evil than to bring teaching [...] back to the fundamental teaching of a smaller number of things.
1790
The more a Prince exhausts himself in giving, the more he impoverishes himself of friends.
1580
Men judge things only according to their experience, which is extremely limited, and everything that does not conform to it seems an absurdity to them.
1704
I have the feeling [...] of having escaped from a world of abstractions and finding myself among real people—good or bad, but with a genuine goodness or wickedness.
1934-1942
Gold lion-head pendant
2nd half of the 5th century BCE
He who has modest tastes does not create trouble for himself; he who is concerned only with his inner progress is not affected by any deprivation.
4th century BC
If each citizen, as he becomes individually weaker, [...] did not learn the art of uniting with his fellows to defend his liberty, tyranny would necessarily grow with equality.
1835-1840
This universe is one animal, which contains within itself all animals. There is in it one soul, which spreads throughout all its parts.
c. 253-270 AD
One can make, in words, demonstrations and indubitable Propositions, without thereby advancing in the least in the knowledge of the truth of things.
1689
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Reviving a Child
ca. 1530
The word 'to succeed' was obviously missing.
c. 1552-1553
Complete mysticism would be action, creation, love.
1932
Without realizing it, we each have a different language, which we all change at every moment, and it is with these ever-shifting languages that we think.
1801
We must Mediterraneanize music.
1888
In the Studio
1888
It is through [our will] that we are happy or unhappy [...] it is what causes our misfortune when neglected, and our happiness when cared for.
c. 108 AD
There enters into our composition something of the character of the turtledove, though allied with that of the wolf and the serpent.
1751
A hasty prosperity followed by rapid successes is usually suspect and threatens a prompt change.
1636
One sees in it the reflection of an inner fire and the dark charms of a melancholic heart.
1926
Limestone statuette of a beardless male votary with a wreath of leaves
310–30 BCE
[...] the first glance he cast upon himself produced the first movement of pride.
1755
The internal sanction of duty, whatever our standard of duty may be, is one and the same—a feeling in our own mind.
1861
It is not our senses that deceive us, but our will that deceives us through its hasty judgments.
1674-1675
The wise man will not be angered by those who sin. Why? Because he knows that wisdom is not born with us, but must be acquired.
c. 41 AD
Limestone statue of a veiled female votary
1st century BCE
I necessarily have the passion to write this, and you have the passion to condemn me; we are both equally foolish, equally the playthings of destiny.
1764
The object of government is not to make citizens slaves, but to enable them to freely perform the actions that are best.
1661-1675
The splendor of true glory, the majesty of a great soul [...] appear to be a gift of virtue; the rest is but a loan from fortune.
46 BC
The unity and power of the revolutionary force were thus broken; [...] the class struggle between the bourgeois and the proletarians had led to a bloody conflict.
1851-1852
Allegory of the Arts
1742
If one has a single counter-example, the refutation is based on the fact that the event is not necessary, or that it has occurred several times in a different way.
329-323 BC
Where will I find these connections, if not in the study of myself and the knowledge of men [...]?
1746
Never did a man rush into danger with more audacity, nor emerge from it with more prudence.
1512-1527
Let it be enough for your consolation to think that you are suffering for me and for my Father.
1263-1264
A River Landscape
ca. 1766–72
The art that applies to one, applies to many, and reciprocally.
End of the 4th century BC
A decree of the Parliament, dated July 7, 1746, condemned the small volume to be burned.
1746
How many events it is enough to predict for them to take place.
1623
Rhythm is the soul of music.
1746
The Triumph of Henry IV
ca. 1630
Truth is simple and clear; the marvelous always announces falsehood.
1766
[...] the effect must always be proportional to the action that is necessary to produce it [...].
1637
'Our god is money, our religion is profit'.
1896
Sickness is the natural state of the Christian.
1670
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1520–25