The desire for happiness [...] must force one to indulge in vice when, by the form of government, wealth, honors, and felicity are its rewards.
1772
It is not impossible, metaphysically speaking, that there could be a dream as continuous and lasting as a man's life; but this is a thing as contrary to reason as the fiction of a book being formed by chance [...].
1704
It is the mark of a wise man to anticipate these declines [...] without waiting for his turn to experience them abruptly.
1636
The severe word of Kant is a manifesto in which Morality announces that it is free and independent of any kind of revelation, of any kind of God above or below [...].
1841
Bronze helmet attachment
late 6th century BCE
[...] offenses committed with the pen must be punished like offenses committed with speech.
1765
However, who can be sure of what goes on in the hearts of kings, and of what determines their will?
1746
We only remember having been ignorant of that which we remember having learned [...].
1754
Knowledge, whether it deals with the past, the present, or the future, is always the same.
c. 380 BC
Inscribed marble statue base
ca. 270–250 BCE
In the election of its magistrates, one sees [...] the people make far better choices than a prince; and one will never persuade the people to raise a corrupt man to a position of dignity [...].
1513-1519
The perpetual struggle waged [within the artist] between intelligence and sensitivity [...] can yield the most beautiful, most living works.
1926
Beauty is the only finality here below. As Kant said very well, it is a finality that contains no end.
1942
Of Essence and Quality.
c. 253-270 AD
Bronze axe head
ca. 2500–1900 BCE
The splendor of true glory, the majesty of a great soul [...] appear to be a gift of virtue; the rest is but a loan from fortune.
46 BC
The gods [...] have put in our power only what is best and most excellent in the world, the right use of our impressions. The rest, they have not put in our power.
c. 108 AD
One only succeeds on the condition of letting one's nature act. Constraint prevents success.
4th century BC
When one is no longer sensitive to small faults, one is less so to large ones.
1893
The Annunciation
ca. 1585
In the Christian religion, everything seems abandoned to the imagination, whims, and arbitrary decisions of its ministers [...].
1766
Although the worker's standard of living had remained the same, his relative wage and his relative social position, compared to that of the capitalist, would have been lowered.
1865
If we consult reason or revelation, we shall find that fathers and mothers have an equal right and power.
1690
When the possessors of a privilege make concessions to those who are deprived of it, it is rarely for any other reason than because the latter acquire the power to extort them.
1869
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1560
The first reason for voluntary servitude is custom.
c. 1552-1553
The homage and insults of the crowd must be met with the same contempt: let us not be afflicted by the latter, nor congratulate ourselves for the former.
c. 55
No one can truly practice piety, nor obey God, except by submitting to all the decrees of the sovereign.
1670
Our passions are not susceptible to those impressions that come from the refinement of the mind and imagination.
1751
Steatite spindle whorl
ca. 2400–1900 BCE
[Language] forces the infinite nuances of ever-unstable thought into certain fixed forms [...]: and in fixing them, it takes away their life.
1819
It flows, but it does not boil; it does not tear away its bank, nor carry with it the trees, nor the men, nor their dwellings.
1741-1784
To say that a man gives himself gratuitously is to say an absurd and inconceivable thing; such an act is illegitimate and null, for the sole reason that he who does it is not in his right mind.
1762
It is much easier and more pleasant to follow than to lead [...] it is a great peace of mind to only have to follow a set path and to answer only for oneself.
1580
Diana
ca. 1760
The thirst for pity is a thirst for self-enjoyment, and this at the expense of one's fellow human beings.
1878
Position is the order or disposition of parts in a place.
c. 1270
If any innovator has ever had prompt success, it is because he has only declared [...] opinions that were already simmering in every mind.
1805
In the United States, each newspaper individually has little power; but the periodical press is still, after the people, the first of powers.
1835-1840
Brackets, 2
6th century BCE
One ends up accustomed to using [examples] as formulas rather than as principles.
1781
If our body is the matter to which our consciousness applies itself, it is coextensive with our consciousness, it includes everything we perceive, it reaches to the stars.
1932
[...] how fables must be constructed for poetry to be good.
c. 335 BC
The investigation of final causes is sterile, and, like a virgin consecrated to God, it bears no fruit.
1623
Standing male figurine
ca. 750–600 BCE
We [...] only want to believe what evidence compels us to believe.
1707
I do not think [a book] is worth the trouble of reading.
1643-1649
A great proof of [...] superiority is that, without having received any personal insult, he ran up against the wicked for the interest of others.
100-120 AD
For the greater convenience of the public, while waiting for all the routes to be established [...], one will be able to go in the same carriage from any neighborhood of Paris to the others.
1662
Two Young Peasant Women
1891–92