The habit of an impression dulls its vivacity. [...] The same beauty, in the long run, ceases to be so for me.
1772
Just like the Greek religion, [the totemic religion] puts the divine everywhere; the famous formula πάντα πλήρη θεῶν can also serve as its motto.
1912
What was at first a mere brute fact becomes a legal right, guaranteed by society, supported and protected by social forces [...].
1869
Marx gives an admirable account of the mechanism of capitalist oppression; but he accounts for it so well that it is hard to imagine how this mechanism could ever cease to function.
1934
Limestone plaque with two eyes in relief
480–310 BCE
You dared to speak thus, O you, of all men the most.... For I do not know what name to give you that would be worthy of your character.
86-82 BC
Jesus [...] entrusted, although he was a thief, the purse of the poor, to remove any pretext, any excuse for his betrayal...
1263-1264
[The goal is to] guide and light up at night those who wish to use the service to come and go wherever they please.
1662
Duration and movement are measured with the utmost precision, thanks to extension.
1817
Marble grave relief with a funerary banquet and departing warriors
2nd century BCE
[The Popes] forbade by their bulls the teaching of civil law. One can say of this audacity: It is not believable, but it is true.
1764
Once the revolutionary career is entered upon, act with the greatest determination and take the offensive. The defensive is the death of every armed uprising; it is lost before it has measured itself with its enemies.
1851-1852
There is not and there cannot be any being outside of nature, which is infinite.
c. 1660
[...] succession is an abstract of the motor effort exerted in space, an effort which, having become conscious, is intention.
1890
Madame Grand (Noël Catherine Vorlée, 1761–1835)
1783
Such is the blessed condition of the intelligible world that in doing nothing it does great things, and in remaining within itself it produces important works.
c. 253-270 AD
In the divine essence, there is absolutely nothing other than man; the secret of theology is anthropology.
1841
The only pain [virtue] requires is to calculate correctly, and to give preference to the greatest happiness.
1751
Although a passion, for being secret, is no less a passion, [...] it matters greatly to know how to make a mystery of it.
1636
View of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme
1896–98
Bring me whatever man you wish, and I will see if he knows how to analyze them.
c. 108 AD
Science is like water. [...] some comes from heaven; others spring from the earth.
1623
But from morality an end nevertheless follows; for it is impossible for reason to remain indifferent to the question: what will result from our good conduct?
1793
What is good? — All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.
1888
Portrait of a Member of the de Thou Family
1540
Often we think we have left our affairs, when we have only changed them.
1580
It is therefore the people themselves who allow themselves to be, or rather cause themselves to be, dominated, since by ceasing to serve they would be free; it is the people who enslave themselves, who cut their own throats.
c. 1552-1553
He who consents to obey slavishly [...] some of his fellow men, who gives up his will to them and submits even his thought to them, how can he claim that he wants to be free?
1835-1840
It is not without reason that I have elaborated [...] on all the circumstances I could recall.
1782-1789
Rustic Interior
1632
The measure of a man is what he does with power.
c. 375 BC
Wise is the one who considers yes and no from the center of the circumference, and lets the wheel turn. [...] Wise is the one who acts when circumstances are favorable and ceases to act when the time is right.
4th century BC
One should not ask if the body and the soul are one and the same thing, any more than one should ask if the wax and the shape it receives are identical.
384–322 BC
[He] would slip in as a humble collaborator, happy to move among so many masters. It was his way of showing contempt.
1926
Entrance to a Village
ca. 1665
If we examine the virtues that Christianity recommends, we will see that they are ill-suited for man, that they raise him above his sphere, that they are useless to society, and that they are often of the most dangerous consequence for it.
1766
A person who might have an infinity of real causes for displeasure, but who would strive [...] to turn their imagination away from them, never thinking of them, except when the necessity of affairs would oblige it...
1643-1649
It is sometimes more difficult to govern a single man than a great people.
1746
The chains of diamond are not [...] fear and force [...] but rather the affection, zeal, and gratitude that the justice and virtue of leaders inspire in the hearts of their subjects.
100-120 AD
A Jaguar Devouring a Deer
after 1840
One lives badly when one does not know how to die well.
49 to 62 A.D.
Madmen do not pass for what they are among the mad who resemble them, but only among reasonable men.
1674-1675
[He] reasons as his head leads him; but he acts on principle; which is why I love him with all my heart, although my head does not think like his.
1741-1784
For the wise, 'necessary' and 'ought' are equivalent things.
1710
Roundel, medallion with head of Hermes
323 BCE - 31 CE
[The man born blind] for a long time distinguished neither sizes, nor distances, nor situations, nor even figures. [...] All that he saw, at first seemed to be upon his eyes, and to touch them.
1746
When you realize you are about to be defeated, you can create a diversion, i.e., start talking about something completely different, as if it had something to do with the debate.
1830-1831
It seems that this new morality has made men weaker, and has delivered the world to audacious scoundrels.
1513-1519
Whoever will not eat until he has demonstratively seen that such food will nourish him [...] will have little else to do but to remain at rest and perish in a short time.
1689
Head of a comic figurine
late 4th–3rd century BCE