One only acquires in order to spend.
1772
Morality and religion belong entirely to the physiology of error.
1888
The dream, on the contrary, is like something entirely foreign, like something which, like the external world, imposes itself upon us without our participation, and even against our will.
1836
What [...] color, race, religion, or nationality [...] are for some men, sex is for all women; it is a radical exclusion from almost all honorable occupations.
1869
Statuette of a warrior-11
7000 BCE - 30 BCE
Where will I find these connections, if not in the study of myself and the knowledge of men [...]?
1746
[One must] get rid of prejudices.
1926
There is nothing more miserably corrupt than an aristocracy that retains its wealth while losing its power, and which, reduced to vulgar pleasures, still possesses immense leisure.
1835-1840
It is a king's lot to be well, and to hear that one is unwell.
c. 108 AD
Pietà
ca. 1657–60
The time spent on refutation, in philosophy, is generally time wasted. [...] What counts and what remains is the positive truth that one has contributed.
1919
Lying alone, and a little below it, obstinacy, seem to me to be those things whose birth and progress one should combat at all costs.
1580
The most perfect being is always attached to humanity by a small corner of imperfection.
1896
The second [part] consists in the particular things that are caused by the general modes.
c. 1660
The Cellier Altarpiece
1511–12
An oppressed class is the vital condition of every society founded on the antagonism of classes.
1847
Preoccupied with learning what they do not know [...], men unlearn what they know (the natural truths of common sense).
4th century BC
When men depart from the maxims of reason to embrace [...] an artificial life, no one can answer for what will please or displease them.
1751
The desire to travel took hold of me; and far from stifling it at its birth, [...] I lent an ear to all that could strengthen it.
1627
A Man Leaning on a Parapet
ca. 1881
No one is brought back to nature with difficulty, if he has not divorced himself from it.
63-64 AD
At first he bore his misfortune with constancy; soon he grew accustomed to it and suffered it without difficulty.
100-120 AD
The great naturally know all things; they are always right, even when they decide on questions of which they have no knowledge.
1674-1675
The author and the publisher are in a game for two: if the latter pays what he wishes, in return he does not know what he is buying.
1741-1784
Statuette of a warrior-10
7000 BCE - 30 BCE
Three things inspire confidence in a speaker, independently of demonstrations: good sense, virtue, and benevolence.
329-323 BC
I call natural the needs that are a consequence of our conformation, and artificial the needs that we owe to habit.
1776
But, whether through nonchalance or extreme poverty, this useful regulation was only very imperfectly executed.
1662
If men differ in the name, does that change the things or their resemblances?
1704
Basket of Flowers
1848–49
What, indeed, is more fortunate than to be able [...] to converse with the most eloquent characters, with the best people who ever lived?
45 BC
If science is useful to political society, ignorance is far more useful to religion and its ministers.
1766
One must have very little knowledge of the world to believe that a great volubility of tongue is found only as a consequence of good judgment...
1689
[...] old age upon which all infirmities converge, and that without any relief.
4th century BC
Marble female figure
4500–4000 BCE
In each particular conscience, the personal sphere has grown much more than [the common sphere].
1893
The two main pitfalls of heroism are unbridled anger and unrestrained greed: that is where reputation commonly runs aground.
1636
Do not judge by appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. [...] it is not on the importance of persons that you should base your judgment, but on the very nature of things.
1263-1264
[...] they saw I was poor and in a hurry to sell.
1747
Portrait of a Woman
1838
I am on a continuous journey.
1643-1649
Harmony is the unity of a mixture of many, and the single thought of separate thinkers.
1953
This is the beginning of the first Olympian ode by Pindar.
c. 1552-1553
Happy are the sick if those who treat them prescribe only diet and cold water, leaving the rest to be done by good nature.
1790
The Last Token: A Christian Martyr
1860
[Love] is that insatiable and infinite desire of the soul, [...] itself moved by a perpetual and never-satiated desire.
c. 253-270 AD
On the limits of the Sovereign power.
1762
When we see ourselves clearly [...] we can also see clearly what our means of knowing are capable of teaching us.
1817
The public will look for [the author] in an edition, not his commentators.
1855
Cloud Study (Distant Storm)
ca. 1786–1806