If one wishes to learn something new, one must resort to intuition, as the truly rich and fertile source of our knowledge.
1819
Think rather that if life flees, if youth is but a flower that soon withers, we must all the more seize the moment when we possess it [...] & not lose any particle of such a fleeting existence.
1742
If you can, do.
1741-1784
[...] men, in seeking to shield themselves from fear, immediately begin to make themselves feared.
1513-1519
The Trinity in an Initial B
Probably 1387
The perpetual struggle waged [within the artist] between intelligence and sensitivity [...] can yield the most beautiful, most living works.
1926
If all individuals [...] are equally protected today, this softening of morals is due not to the appearance of a new penal rule, but to the extension of an old one.
1893
Freedom [...] admits of degrees.
1889
Do you not find, then, that I have prepared [for life] my entire life?
c. 108 AD
Fragment of a terracotta relief of a woman and child
mid-4th century BCE
If [a person] retained no memory of their modifications, each time they would believe they were feeling for the first time: entire years would be lost in each present moment.
1754
Do not wait for the day when [sorrow] leaves you against your will: be the first to leave it.
37 AD - 41 AD
He placed his glory and his patriotism in preventing, by his presence, [his city] from diminishing further, and in allowing his fellow citizens to enjoy the esteem attached to his name.
100-120 AD
We claim only the role of a guide, which is certainly not to aim for great authority, and which implies more good fortune than talent and superiority.
1620
Olivier Journu (1724–1783)
1756
It is solely a matter here of observing our sensibility, its acts, that is to say its different modes, which constitute our different ways of existing.
1817
That which particularly afflicts common men, should serve as a consolation [to a stronger mind].
1643-1649
I find it better to sacrifice vain applause [...] for the truer satisfaction that comes from perceiving the regular chain of things, when one sees physical analogies concur [...] to bring physical truths to light.
1755
[Faith] condemns as heretics [...] only those who teach opinions capable of leading to rebellion, hatred, disputes, and anger.
1670
Terracotta male head
5th century BCE
The contradiction in the existence of God.
1841
The source of our passions, [...] the only one that is born with man and never leaves him as long as he lives, is self-love.
1762
Extraordinary actions can only come from a heart that is also extraordinary.
1636
Youth is brave, but intemperate.
329-323 BC
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1790
Truly foolish is the one who tires their mind and wears out their body to reach such an end.
4th century BC
While others buy the objects of their pleasures at great expense [...], I procure for myself, without spending anything, the pleasures of the soul, which are purer [...].
4th century BC
I was full of the memories of M. de Chateaubriand and Cooper, and I expected to see [...] savages on whose faces nature would have left the trace of some of those haughty virtues that the spirit of freedom engenders.
1864-1866
The contemplation of the One is that supreme revelation of the mysteries that the hierophant alone sees in the sanctuary and can only communicate to the initiated.
c. 253-270 AD
Peasants Dancing
1651
I prefer to discover a single new etiology than to obtain the crown of the king of Persia!
1841
The more ancient the abuse, the more sacred it is.
1769
The materialist method, this instrument bequeathed to us by Marx, is a virgin instrument; no Marxist has ever truly used it, starting with Marx himself.
1934
It is religion that hatched despots and tyrants; they made bad laws; their example corrupted the great; the great corrupted the people; and the debased people became wretched slaves.
1766
Standing tambourine player
ca. 600–480 BCE
The love of power and the love of liberty are in an eternal antagonism. Where liberty is less, the passion for power is more ardent and more shameless.
1869
To redeem what is past, and to transform every 'it was' into 'thus I willed it!' — that alone I would call redemption!
1883-1885
When one has found the truth, one must stand firm in it; since curiosity is given to us only to lead us to discover it.
1674-1675
Which of his readers does he not send away with a calmer heart! Can one, overwhelmed with sadness, pick up one of his books and not feel cheerfulness reborn?
45 BC
Man with a Celestial Globe
1624
[...] I do not doubt at all that one can deduce, from self-evident Propositions [...] the true measures of Right and Wrong by consequences [...] as incontestable as those used in Mathematics.
1689
The subject is well worth the trouble of reading it.
1574
It is a demonstration, but an imperfect one, which requires or presupposes a truth that still deserves to be demonstrated.
Late 17th - early 18th century
I become imbued with a disease to which I give my particular attention, and I catch its seed.
1580
Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan
1633
Nature has provided other animals with clothing and weapons. [...] For man, [...] it has given him intelligence and hands, so that he could provide himself with what is necessary.
c. 1270
...saving, in other things, our right and that of others in all matters.
1662
There are neither talents, nor wisdom, nor solid pleasures in the heart of error.
1746
History is but a fable agreed upon.
1758
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