Most men seem incapable of concluding anything from the first principle of morality.
1674-1675
Arrange favorable circumstances, and what you desire will happen without you seeming to be involved.
1797-1798
To win a victory, the army must have confidence in itself and in its general.
1855
If the social order were [...] the work of reason rather than of the passions, [...] we have only prevented private wars to ignite general ones that are a thousand times more terrible.
1762
Marble head of a kouros (youth)
ca. 525–475 BCE
Often even his faults were graciously received, and passed for witticisms.
100-120 AD
The contradiction of Catholicism with human nature was the intimate foundation of the Reformation.
1842-1845
He blindly follows what he believes to be my opinions [...] even though he does not understand them; thus he blindly contradicts them [...].
1643-1649
It is a common fault of nature that we have more confidence in [...] things unseen, hidden, and unknown.
1580
Edward Smith Stanley (1752–1834), Twelfth Earl of Derby, Elizabeth, Countess of Derby (Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, 1753–1797), and Their Son (Edward Smith Stanley, 1775–1851)
ca. 1776
The doctrine of the will has been invented essentially for the purpose of punishment, that is, with the intention of finding guilt.
1888
It is enough to have once learned the things of this world [...], whereas it is not enough to have once understood those of the other kind [spiritual truths].
1656-1657
What experience teaches me under certain circumstances, it must teach me always and teach everyone, and its validity is not limited to the subject or their state of the moment.
1783
Instead of revenge [...], [the heroic heart] forgives an unjust hatred, and [...] even returns good for evil.
1636
The Congregation of the Mother of God
1570
[The coquette enters] dressed in that gallant manner which allows all to hope for what she will grant to very few.
1772
Debauchery has overcome modesty, audacity has overcome fear, delirium has overcome reason.
66 BC
All the external reasons [...] on which my sense of dignity, my self-respect, were based, have been [...] radically shattered by the blow of a brutal and daily constraint.
1934-1942
[An] absurd exemption [...] is naturally explained among peoples of barbaric origin.
1776
Fragment of a limestone relief with two standing figures
4th–3rd century BCE
The appearance of Sages causes the appearance of brigands, and the disappearance of Sages causes the disappearance of brigands. Sages and brigands, these two terms are correlative, one calls for the other [...].
4th century BC
[My principle] is founded [...] on the idea we have of the absolutely infinite Being, and not on there being or possibly being beings endowed with three, four, or five attributes.
1661-1676
In every system, the supreme results [...] form something like the pinnacle of the pyramid.
1819
There is [...] a country in the world [...] where they have a way of thinking, especially in morality, which is diametrically opposed to ours.
1751
The Madonna of Humility, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Pietà
ca. 1465
I am happy, everything around me becomes beautiful. I suffer, everything around me darkens. But this phenomenon only occurs in moderate pleasures or pains.
1774
[The unfinished work] consists of the foundations of a palace barely out of the ground, but already visible enough to bear witness to the architect's genius.
1926
Pope Alexander VI divided the two new worlds [...] everything to the east [...] was to belong to Portugal; everything to the west was given to Spain.
1756
Because we fulfill a certain function, [...] we are caught in a network of obligations from which we do not have the right to free ourselves.
1893
Statuette of a girl, fragmentary
3rd century BCE
The Assembly was, in fact, more of a school of parliamentary etiquette for its members than an institution in which the people could take any interest.
1851-1852
Whenever a great event, a revolution, or a calamity turns to the profit of the Clergy, these things indicate the finger of God, who always has his good friends the Priests in mind.
1768
The mechanical arts [...] are like so many two-edged swords that serve sometimes to do evil, sometimes to remedy it.
1620
We are free when our acts emanate from our whole personality, when they express it, when they have that indefinable resemblance to it which one sometimes finds between the artist and his work.
1889
Marble relief fragment with male torso
ca. 1st century BCE
The knowledge of Man cannot extend beyond his own experience.
1689
It is generally admitted that it is just for a person to receive (good or evil) what they deserve, and unjust for them to receive the good or suffer the evil they do not deserve.
1861
[...] the ultimate resolution of the Laws of Nature leads us to more sublime principles of order and perfection, which show that the universe is the effect of a universal intelligent power.
1697
[Love] is that insatiable and infinite desire of the soul, [...] itself moved by a perpetual and never-satiated desire.
c. 253-270 AD
Sunflowers
1887
Who then could you reasonably consider more just than a man who has adapted to his present fortune, to the point of never needing what belongs to others?
4th century BC
There is nothing we would rather reflect upon and practice than the means to be free and unhindered.
c. 108 AD
[...] one hand washes the other.
c. 54 AD
When one recognizes several kinds of substances, [...] the generation and destruction of things occur as a result of the combination and separation of elements.
c. 350 B.C.E.
The Return of Persephone
ca. 1890–91
When our [thing] is thus regulated and reformed, it will seem entirely new [...]. The abuses drove them away, and the reformation would call them back.
c. 1552-1553
If he is a man, he is an animal; but he is a man, therefore he is an animal.
c. 1270
We only enjoy other people; the rest is nothing.
1746
[The pioneer] belongs to that restless, reasoning, and adventurous race, who does coldly what the ardor of passion alone explains [...]
1835-1840
Louis Morau
1785