For the disciple of the Principle, the essential thing is the preservation of one's life. [...] The common men of this age, on the contrary, compromise their lives for their own interests; it is lamentable!
4th century BC
The genus is the external framework [...]. The content cannot itself provide the framework in which it is arranged.
1912
You are like a drachma that would ask to be recommended to someone so they might value it.
c. 108 AD
We reason about their flaws as we do about those of a great man; if they were not jealous, mad, vain, capricious, they would not be this genius.
1774
Horseman
4th–3rd century BCE
The image reflected by several mirrors [...], weakens more and more with each reflection [...]. It is the same with knowledge produced by a long series of proofs.
1704
Let us speak of our own miseries rather than those of others: let us probe our heart, see for how many things it makes itself a candidate, and refuse it our vote.
63-64 AD
[...] if we are not possessed by the incurable mania of substituting hypotheses and conjectures for observation [...].
1817
The luxury of frivolities, subject to the whims of fashion, [...] throws one into expenses to which one can see no limit.
1776
Terracotta statuette of a doll
3rd century BCE
There is nothing superfluous (except for the overly delicate).
1574
[...] science as a reflection reproducing real development, in opposition to ideology as a distorting reflection of that same development.
1841
We would submit [...] if we were not [...] protected by two [...] powerful deities [...], Indigence, and Despair which knows no Force.
1758
The most beautiful, most pleasant, and most necessary of all our knowledge is undoubtedly the knowledge of ourselves.
1674-1675
First Steps
ca. 1820–25
Above all these gods reigns the God par excellence, the absolute Good, principle of all that is divine, source of the divinity of the other gods.
c. 253-270 AD
Do you not see that the courts [...], offended by a defense, have often put innocent men to death, and often acquitted the guilty whose words had moved their pity or flattered their ears?
4th century BC
If I had a moment to myself.
1749-1751
Reality is far superior [to the novel] in its human truth, so tragic and moving.
1926
Bronze kyathos (single-handled jug)
ca. 450–400 BCE
He is the only author in the world who has never wearied nor disgusted men, always showing himself to readers as something new, and always flourishing with new grace.
1580
It is [...] such a praiseworthy virtue to judge others favorably.
1643-1649
If you want our city to be immortal [...], we must guard against our own passions, against turbulent men eager for revolution; against internal evils and treacherous plots hatched in our own homes.
63 BC
[He] was truly one of those all-too-rare men who, by giving everything within them until nothing is left, thereby show themselves to be related to genius.
1896
Carlo Rimbotti (1518–1591)
1548
It is a great dream that this One being dreams: a dream, but a dream of such a kind that all its characters dream it with him. Hence it is that everything is in everything, that everything fits with everything.
1836
Obscurity is the kingdom of error.
1747
If they are dealing with people [...] who have only pride joined with much malignity [...], let them be well persuaded that they must begin by divesting themselves of all that can bring them honor.
1620
Wherever men are ignorant, there will be prophets, inspired ones, miracle-workers; [...] this trade will always diminish in the same proportion as nations become enlightened.
1766
Chisel
670 BCE - 330 CE
As God is the first cause of all things, the knowledge of God must logically precede the knowledge of all other things.
c. 1660
To everything a man lets become visible, one can ask: what does he want to hide? From what does he want to avert his gaze? What prejudice does he want to evoke?
1881
Fear lulls sedition to sleep.
100-120 AD
Good laws alone do not constitute a good government [...]. There is therefore a good government first where the law is obeyed, and then where the law that is obeyed is founded on reason.
c. 350 BCE
Madame Grand (Noël Catherine Vorlée, 1761–1835)
1783
Pascal renounced [...] including anything in a scientific study that would recall either the personality of the author or the personality of his predecessors.
1663
I appeal to my courage and my sword.
1636
I foresee that I will not easily be forgiven for the side I have dared to take.
1750
The affection and tenderness which God has placed in the hearts of fathers and mothers for their children shows [...] that he did not intend their power to be a severe power.
1690
The Life and Miracles of Saint Godelieve
1475
Bodies [...] are carved from the fabric of nature by a perception whose scissors follow the dotted lines along which action would pass.
1922
It is self-interest that breaks the bonds of all alliances.
1855
If you cannot understand what God is, at least understand what He is not: you will have gained much if you do not have thoughts about God that are contrary to His divine nature.
1263-1264
The premature death of those in whom we placed the most flattering hopes throws us into a kind of dread; but how often, perhaps, is this not the greatest favor of heaven!
1760
Madame Auguste Cuoq (Mathilde Desportes, 1827–1910)
ca. 1852–57
I believe that the social relations between the two sexes, which subordinate one sex to the other in the name of the law, are wrong in themselves and now constitute one of the chief hindrances to human improvement.
1869
I have noticed that among the French the first question about a foreigner is to ask: is he amiable? does he have wit? Whereas in our country [...] it is to say: he is a very sensible man.
1751
Reading — except for a certain quality of attention — obeys gravity.
1947
This dwelling forms, by itself, a small world; it is the ark of civilization lost in the midst of an ocean of foliage.
1835-1840
Madonna and Child with Saints
1607