Objects have no value in themselves; they are worth only the price that our soul attaches to them.
1742
Independence (called 'freedom of thought' in its weakest dose) is the form of renunciation that the dominating spirit finally accepts—he who has long sought what he could dominate and has found nothing other than himself.
1881
[...] by what right would a man set himself up as an absolute moral judge of his fellow men, and as such inflict punishments on them for their faults?
1839
It is undoubtedly true that this phenomenon is not produced without means, that is to say, without a cause capable of producing such an effect.
1715-1716
Bronze lion paw
7th century BCE
In what truly matters to the subject, I am sure to be exact and faithful.
1782-1789
Only the absolute identification of justice and love makes possible at once [...] compassion and gratitude, [and] respect for the dignity of misfortune.
1942
As [Plato] philosophized [...] in a place called the Academy, his followers kept the name Academics.
45 BC
The source of inspiration remains forever hidden from us [...]. Logic loses its rights, and if a necessity drives genius to produce, the law of that necessity remains within itself.
1896
Terracotta plank-shaped figurine
ca. 2000–1800 BCE
From the moment I began to understand human language, I have never ceased to seek and to learn all the good I could.
4th century BC
It is not the largest population, considered in itself, that should be the judge of a State's prosperity.
1776
It's astonishing, the divine music that twelve French syllables can make!
1926
Authority also supports men's prejudices, forbids them from examining, forces them into ignorance, and is always ready to punish anyone who would attempt to undeceive them.
1766
The Crucifixion, (reverse) Saint Francis of Assisi; The Resurrection, (reverse) An Abbot Saint, Possibly Saint Benedict
1455
The fact that in Vienna, as in Berlin, the fate of the revolution was decided [...] is sufficient to demonstrate that this body was merely a debating club [...].
1851-1852
The intellect grasps without discoursing [...]. On the contrary, reason [...] only appropriates what it grasps by discoursing.
c. 1270
He who makes himself a worm, can he then complain of being crushed?
1797-1798
All our adequate ideas are true.
1670
Still Life with Cheese
probably late 1870s
Forgive me, I feel all the flaws of the morality on which I am embarking.
1718-1778
[Witty remarks and bold actions] have often been like wings to suddenly reach the summit of greatness.
1636
That all bodies are reluctant to separate from one another [...]; that is to say, that Nature abhors the void.
1647
God's will being entirely in conformity with order and justice, it is enough to have a right to a thing in order to obtain it.
1674-1675
Amulet
7000 BCE - 330 CE
Doubtless, one must be truthful in both praise and history; but, whether historian or orator, one must be neither monotonous nor cold.
1741-1784
Sciences and their inventions spread immediately and fly everywhere; for science is communicated as easily as light.
1609
[One must have] the inclination [...] to look at things that present themselves from the angle that can make them the most agreeable.
1643-1649
Human wickedness, though difficult to cure, is neither so savage nor so brutal that it cannot eventually yield [...] to oft-repeated kindnesses.
100-120 AD
Saint John on Patmos
ca. 1511
Some fall asleep on the authority of prejudices and even admit contradictory ones, for want of going to the point where they contradict each other.
1746
if each [Church and State] kept within its own proper bounds, there would not be the least occasion for trouble and discord...
1686
The wicked rule only through the cowardice of those who obey them: it is more just that it be so than otherwise.
c. 253-270 AD
We are far from the time when philosophy was the one and only science; it has fragmented into a multitude of special disciplines, each with its own object, its method, its spirit.
1893
Marble table leg (trapezophoros) with reliefs of griffins
5th century BCE
There are sick people who are congratulated for knowing their illness well.
63-64 AD
My taste and my constitution are more hostile to this vice [drunkenness] than my discourse.
1580
...behind perception, which is actual, there are hidden powers and virtualities...
1919
I am this way, without knowing why. I am, like the husk from which a cicada has emerged, [...] an accessory, a thing having no existence of its own.
4th century BC
Bronze kyathos (single-handled jug)
ca. 450–400 BCE
You will find that you have more of that for which you are better than him.
c. 108 AD
The moral faculty, if not a part of our nature, is a natural outgrowth from it: [...] it is capable, to a certain extent, of springing up spontaneously; and is susceptible of being brought by cultivation to a high degree of development.
1861
We can never be mistaken about the perception we currently have; and as our perceptions are everything to us, it would seem [...] that we are completely inaccessible to error.
1805
One often achieves through violence and audacity what one would never obtain through ordinary means.
1855
Margaretha van Clootwijk (born about 1580/81, died 1662)
1639
Each person finds pleasure only in that which corresponds to their nature.
c. 350 BCE
You started from the abuses of liberty, and I find you at the feet of a despot.
1835-1840
If I can [...] by resorting to paper, make some honest man speak what I feel, my spirits, fed by this freedom, immediately regain new strength.
1574
It is the same with money. Is it strongly desired? This desire vivifies a nation, awakens its industry, animates its commerce, increases its wealth and its power.
1772
Marble forepart of a left sandaled foot
1st or 2nd century CE