Happy are the sick if those who treat them prescribe only diet and cold water, leaving the rest to be done by good nature.
1790
If I grow older, I know that I will necessarily have to pay my tribute to old age; my sight will weaken, I will hear less well, my intelligence will decline [...].
4th century BC
When you want a people or a prince to reject all settlement, there is no surer way [...] than to incite them to some grave treachery.
1855
...here is a very piquant booklet that Mr. Diderot has taken from his portfolio to pay homage to a beautiful lady...
1773-1774
Still Life: A Banqueting Scene
ca. 1640–41
Since two things of the same kind cannot exist at the same time in the same place, whatever exists anywhere excludes every other thing of the same kind.
1689
From the moment you submit what is you to what is not you, you must be a slave forever.
c. 108 AD
By thinking to extirpate opinions with the sword, we act as with the Hydra, where for one head cut off, seven more would grow back.
c. 1552-1553
Priests were always the first to recover from religious fervor; ambition and avarice must have soon disabused them of the selfless maxims they taught to others.
1766
Standing Herakles (?)
ca. 600–480 BCE
[A quick mind] is [...] the torch that illuminates in doubt, [...] the thread of Ariadne with which one can exit a labyrinth of the most entangled affairs.
1636
Such excuses, if they were admitted, would leave the greatest crimes unpunished.
86-82 BC
Courage has more resources against misfortunes than reason.
1747
It can be said that in him, the man is degraded as the workman is perfected.
1835-1840
Sunset after a Storm on the Coast of Sicily
1853
lust being like a furnace, which blazes up [...] if any outlet is left for the flames; and whose fire is extinguished absolutely, as soon as it is enclosed.
1627
Each phenomenon is the sign of another phenomenon, and by virtue of this universal coordination, the stars indicate future events.
c. 253-270 AD
It is [...] impossible for the word love, for example, to awaken exactly the same idea in the mind of a child or an old man, of a passionate or timid woman...
1817
Karl Marx, the founder of the International, died yesterday in London [...]
March 17, 1883
Standing tambourine player
ca. 600–480 BCE
Competition between two organisms is all the more keen the more alike they are. Having the same needs and pursuing the same objects, they find themselves everywhere in rivalry.
1893
The corruption of public morals infiltrates the conduct of individuals much more quickly than the vices of individuals fill cities with depravity.
100-120 AD
Dust does not cling to a perfectly clear mirror; if it clings, it is because the mirror is damp or greasy.
4th century BC
It is entirely superfluous to forbid women what their constitution does not permit them. Competition is sufficient to prevent them from doing anything they cannot do as well as men, their natural competitors.
1869
Wedding Procession
1841
The great and unique proof of love is to love those who are opposed to us.
1263-1264
Wit, more often than fortune, comes to us while we sleep.
1926
The imagination is more vividly affected by a language that is all action.
1746
It did not result in feelings of revolt in me. No, but on the contrary, the thing I least expected of myself in the world—docility. The docility of a resigned beast of burden.
1934-1942
The Garter
1724
As reason belongs to all and good judgment to a few, it follows that man is given over to all illusions.
1819
In a free State, the sciences and arts will be perfectly cultivated; for every citizen will be allowed to teach in public, at his own risk and peril.
1677
There is no longer a contradiction between freedom and necessity, between idealism and realism.
17th century
Inner tranquility, the testimony of a good conscience, irreproachable morals, a pure and innocent life are things essential to our happiness.
1751
The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda)
ca. 1772
One can affirm of a thing what one clearly conceives to be contained in the idea of that thing.
1707
I feared that another, who had not employed the time, money, nor the effort, might preempt me, giving to the public things he had not seen [...].
1647
Art will only attain a high degree of dignity 'when it is understood, no longer alongside and outside of life, but as an integral part of it [...]'.
1896
Unique and all-powerful, sovereign of the strongest, God resembles us neither in spirit nor in body.
c. 350 B.C.E.
Bronze handle of a hydria (water jar)
4th century BCE
If there were any substance in them [these fallacious goods], they would quench thirst; but the more you draw from them, the more your thirst is inflamed.
63-64 AD
To consider our morality from a distance [...], one must act like the traveler who wants to know the height of a city's towers: for that, he leaves the city.
1882
Woe to the age when women lose their ascendancy, and when their judgments no longer matter to men! It is the final degree of depravity.
1762
In this final scene between death and us, there is no more pretending; one must speak plainly [...] and show what is real and good at the bottom of our hearts.
1580
The Annunciation
ca. 1585
The clergy then took the side of the nuncio [...], it assembled: as its legal assembly was over, the parliament ordered it to disperse.
1769
The best way to succeed is not to aim for success too early, [...] [studies], by developing the whole intelligence, give it enough breadth to contain everything, enough strength to undertake anything.
1882
Truths of reason are necessary and truths of fact are contingent.
1704
How many revolutions executed or prevented, wars ignited or extinguished, by the intrigues of a priest, a woman, or a minister!
1772
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1515