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Dead Smart People

When you're tired of listening to living idiots.

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A ship that is large on a river is very small on the sea.

63-64 AD

Science is like water. [...] some comes from heaven; others spring from the earth.

1623

The people, consequently, may desire to oppress a part of their number; and precautions are as much needed against this as against any other abuse of power.

1859

all men are almost always led to believe not by proof, but by what is pleasing. This way is base, unworthy, and foreign: thus everyone disavows it.

circa 1658

Pieter de Hooch

Leisure Time in an Elegant Setting

Leisure Time in an Elegant Setting

ca. 1663–65

I learned to dwell where no one dwells, in the arid zones, forgetting man, God, blasphemy, and prayer.

1886

Our entire inner life is something like a single sentence begun at the first awakening of consciousness, a sentence strewn with commas, but nowhere cut by full stops.

1919

It seems that no moral quality has ever been regarded as a virtue [...], unless it was useful or agreeable either to the one who possesses it or to others.

1751

Perhaps [...] it is out of benevolence that the god grants me [...] to end my life not only at the most suitable time, but in the least painful way.

4th century BC

Gustave Courbet

Study of a Nude Man

Study of a Nude Man

early 1840s

It is often forbidden for good people [to speak], for fear that a free judgment might offend the ears of the great.

1574

All that is beautiful in the world, it holds from the One who formed it, but all that happens [...] that is bad and unjust, it receives from that prior state.

c. 253-270 AD

I see everywhere men, more cunning and more educated than the common folk, deceiving them with illusions [...] that they believe to be supernatural, because they are ignorant of the secrets of nature and the resources of art.

1766

There can be no injustice where there is no property.

1689

Emmanuel Tzanès

Head of Saint John the Baptist

Head of Saint John the Baptist

1636

Men [...] rise above beasts, in that they see the connections of truths; connections [...] which themselves constitute necessary and universal truths.

1704

Under bad princes, [...] it is the present evil that makes one tremble; all hope is in the future; men hope that from his excesses, liberty may be born.

1855

Our writings operate only on a certain class of citizens, our speeches on all.

1741-1784

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

Greek Artist

Marble head of a woman wearing diadem and veil

Marble head of a woman wearing diadem and veil

425–400 BCE

'We recognize the principle of the decline of humanity, and consequently the necessity of its regeneration; we believe in the possibility of this regeneration [...].'

1896

I appeal to my courage and my sword.

1636

Workers should no longer be ignorant of what they are making [...]; they must be given the feeling of collaborating in a work, the notion of the coordination of tasks.

1934-1942

[Prosperity is] the largest population that [...] is reconciled with the abundance to which all citizens have a right to claim.

1776

Etienne Bouchardy

Portrait of a Woman

Portrait of a Woman

1838

I desire neither reputation nor fortune, because these things do not bring happiness.

4th century BC

We have been led, by the very force of things, to create for ourselves a more defined method, [...] more precisely adapted to the particular nature of social phenomena.

1895

Madmen do not pass for what they are among the mad who resemble them, but only among reasonable men.

1674-1675

A fool can have a great deal of intelligence [...]. He can absolutely give very good advice to others, although his advice is worthless to himself.

1764

Greek Artist, Laconian

Statuette of a warrior-10

Statuette of a warrior-10

7000 BCE - 30 BCE

There are sensitive egoists, [...] who suffer from the misfortune of those who love them, because it disturbs their own peace of mind.

1926

Only theft can still save property; only perjury, religion; bastardy, the family; disorder, order!

1851/1852

The emperor was named in the bull the head of the world, caput orbis.

1756

[The ideal democracy is one] where, without exception, all those who obey only the laws of their country, who are moreover their own masters and live honestly, have the right to vote.

1677

Sébastien Bourdon

Portrait of a Young Boy

Portrait of a Young Boy

1636

Such excuses, if they were admitted, would leave the greatest crimes unpunished.

86-82 BC

Desire and satiety cause us equal pain both before and after pleasure.

1580

The palace of the Caesars received, in a shorter space of time, four emperors, the soldiers bringing one in while chasing another out, just as on a stage.

100-120 AD

In general, when you want to hide your thought, you must question in such a way that [...] even when the conclusion is given, the interlocutor is still asking why.

End of the 4th century BC

Cypriot artist

Spatula

Spatula

3900 BCE - 100 CE

The very pain that pity causes you to feel makes you worthy of pity.

c. 108 AD

The located thing and the place are in an adequate relation.

c. 1270

[One must] make it so that the principal contentment depends only on oneself.

1643-1649

In America, much more zeal and activity are brought to certain improvements than is done elsewhere. In Europe, an infinitely smaller, but more continuous, social force is employed for these same things.

1835-1840

Henri Fantin-Latour

Pansies

Pansies

1903

Invention is the sole proof of genius.

1746

Each one began to look at the others and to want to be looked at himself, and public esteem acquired a price. [...] this was the first step towards inequality, and at the same time towards vice.

1755

Whatever torch we may light, whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain shrouded in a deep night.

1819

What does it matter to booksellers? The public buys; that is enough for them.

1758

Peter Paul Rubens

Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer

Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer

1597