Marriage is the only real servitude recognized by our laws. There are no longer any slaves by law except for the mistress of each house.
1869
One should not be surprised, then, if wages, after sometimes rising suddenly, fall here permanently, while in other professions the price of labor [...] constantly increases.
1835-1840
All religions make man a mere instrument of Providence, and socialism too places men at the service of historical progress, that is to say, the progress of production.
1934
To be happy, desire must be neither too strong nor too weak.
1742
Terracotta plaque
27 BCE–68 CE
To do well, man must follow his natural instinct.
4th century BC
[...] I will confess that they seem to me to speak a language as absurd as if one were to say that a circle has taken on the nature of a square.
1661-1676
In the face of the work [...], one thinks neither of what is interesting, nor of what is entertaining, [...] nor of art in general; one only feels what is necessary about it.
1876
If, when the people, being sufficiently informed, deliberate, the citizens had no communication among themselves, [...] the deliberation would always be good.
1762
Arrowhead
ca. 480–330 BCE
A man who is deprived of any advantage never loses the memory of it: the slightest need is enough to revive it.
1513-1519
It is therefore in the decomposition of the proposition into its elements that the separation between the brute and the intelligent species par excellence is marked.
1803
What did it serve him to have conquered an entire world, since he lost the privilege of great men, which is to know how to command oneself.
1636
Essence, in the end, is nothing other than the possibility of what is proposed.
1704
The Departure of the Gondola
mid-1760s
Light is entirely incorporeal, although it is the act of a body.
c. 253-270 AD
Credulity in men is partly the effect of their laziness. [...] one prefers to believe rather than to examine.
1758
In translating this dialogue, it seemed to us that we were truly witnessing their conversation; we hope that the reader will experience the same effect.
1773-1774
A well-formed opinion on a man's character leads one to judge what his actions might have been.
66 BC
Limestone statuette of a temple girl
late 4th or early 3rd century BCE
It is in the problem of education that lies the great secret of the perfection of human nature.
1797-1798
A man is best portrayed in his career, in his works, and in his words.
1896
Laziness is almost always victorious over the love of truth.
1674-1675
It is clear that there is a great difference between sensation and thought.
1270
Picrolite figure
ca. 3900–2500 BCE
Glory follows merit as infallibly as the shadow follows the body, although, like the shadow, it sometimes walks in front, sometimes behind.
1851
[It is] a means of communication so convenient [...] that allows the smallest fortunes to enjoy facilities that once could only belong to great lords and rich financiers.
1662
There are passions that are all the more useful the more they lean toward excess, [provided] they are entirely good and subject to reason.
1643-1649
Should a god manifest himself to men, only to not be understood? Is this conduct not as ridiculous as it is insane?
1766
Terracotta statuette of a woman
3rd century BCE
A divided city is half taken.
c. 1552-1553
No one having such a power over his own life, no one could communicate it and give it to another.
1690
For organic solidarity to exist, it is not enough that there is a system of organs necessary to one another [...], but the way in which they must cooperate must also be predetermined.
1893
Tell yourself as soon as you are up in the morning: 'What do I lack to rise above all passions, above all troubles?'
c. 108 AD
Marble portrait of the emperor Caracalla
212–217 CE
To be a 'great writer,' to take one's place on the summits, among the finest representatives of humanity, what a burden and how to accept it without trembling?
1926
It is necessary that contraries be in the same genus, if there is no contrary to the genus.
End of the 4th century BC
By setting [the fine], it would be to admit guilt.
4th century BC
It is something more meritorious and nobler to believe than to know, at least in the way we know in this life.
1623
Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine of Siena and a Carthusian Donor
ca. 1411–24
[The true leader] does not wait for power to be conferred upon him: he uses his own strength when circumstances require it.
100-120 AD
Let us rather study the ancients, steep ourselves in their spirit, and try to do [...] what they themselves would do if they lived among us.
1911
The same infirmities, the same weaknesses, the same fragility, are to be noted in all stations; the same subjection to death, which puts such a short and formidable end to human greatness.
1746
[...] the art of living must be learned throughout life; and [...] one must learn how to die throughout life.
c. 49 AD
Entrance to a Village
ca. 1665
[We must] consider our senses separately, [...] distinguish with precision the ideas we owe to each of them, and observe with what progress they instruct themselves.
1754
I hate to death the sense of being a flatterer, which makes me naturally resort to a dry, blunt, and crude speech [...].
1580
Europe was still full of the noise of this king.
1731
The Vienna Insurrection.
1848
Hendrickje Stoffels (1626–1663)
mid-1650s