[...] violence and suspicion are things contrary to my nature.
1643-1649
I continue the examination of my own existence, because it is the only one of which I am directly and immediately certain.
1817
God exhausts himself [...] to reach the soul and seduce it. [...] And when it has become entirely his, he abandons it.
1947
A protector may refuse to help [a people] as an ally, but will soon defend them as a subject.
1513-1519
Upper part of a female limestone votary
2nd or 3rd quarter of the 6th century BCE
The love we have for heavenly goods already gives us knowledge of them, because love itself is a kind of knowledge.
1263-1264
The measure of a man is what he does with power.
c. 375 BC
It is better to derogate from one's station than from one's genius.
1746
The 'power of the people over themselves' does not express the true state of the case; [...] self-government [...] is not the government of each by himself, but of each by all the rest.
1859
Bronze bowl from a thymiaterion (incense burner)
late 4th century BCE
How many times do we change our fancies? What I hold today and what I believe, I hold and believe with all my belief [...]. But has it not happened to me [...] to have embraced something else [...] that I have since judged to be false?
1580
The works of God depict [...] the wisdom and power of the author [...], but they in no way trace his image.
1623
The parts of time are as perfectly similar as those of space, and yet two instants are not the same instant.
1715-1716
Their soul was a chaos like the new society.
1926
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1540–45
In matters of religion, all testimonies are suspect; the most enlightened man sees very poorly when he is seized by enthusiasm or, drunk with fanaticism, or seduced by his imagination.
1766
Philosophers [...] follow virtue not because it is the law, but out of love and because it is in itself lovable.
1661-1676
One must let the world run its course, and not claim to govern it. Otherwise, corrupted natures will no longer act naturally [...].
4th century BC
Liberty alone, men do not desire it, for no other reason, it seems, than that if they desired it, they would have it.
c. 1552-1553
Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte (1778–1851), Daughter of Louis XVI
1795
Such strange and barbarous customs are not at all suitable for an intelligent and civilized people [...] they revolt human nature...
1751
If he is an expert in coins, [...] he will recognize your value; for you are your own recommendation.
c. 108 AD
You can entrust your own purse to whomever you want, but you do not hand over someone else's purse to anyone.
1741-1784
What is not good is to abandon the Creator to live according to the created good, whether one wants to live according to the flesh, or according to the soul, or according to the whole man.
c. 253-270 AD
Two Young Peasant Women
1891–92
To make a fortune, [...] is not the man of wit forced to waste in the antechamber of a patron time that should be spent in stubborn studies?
1758
A people that would never misuse the government would not misuse independence either; a people that would always govern well would not need to be governed.
1762
I had the patience to make up to more than fifty models, all different, [...] before arriving at the accomplishment of the machine that I now present.
1642-1645
A reliable witness, even if they are the only one, is useful.
329-323 BC
Saints Matthew and Francis
ca. 1435
If crises first bring forth revolutions on the Continent, the cause of these is always to be found in England.
1850
Our illness does not come from without; it is within us; its very seat is in our bowels.
63-64 AD
Another care must fill the course of my life; it is to [...] keep the friends I have tested in adversity.
September 57 BC
Movable wealth only multiplies with the help of land-based wealth.
1776
Terracotta head with wreath
ca. 600–480 BCE
Each person can only truly understand and appreciate that which is homogeneous to them.
1851
The more joyful and self-assured the mind becomes, the more a person unlearns loud laughter; in its place, an intellectual smile constantly appears [...].
1879
The vanity of their erudition, leading them to judge before they understand, causes them to fall into gross errors of which other men are not capable.
1674-1675
Visual space and tactile space.
1896
Study of a Nude Man
early 1840s
The rules of professional morality and law [...] oblige the individual to act for ends that are not his own, to make concessions, to take into account interests superior to his own.
1893
The common talent of giving one's ignorance a scientific appearance consists in the superstitious person saying: Do you understand the true cause of magnetic force...?
1790
As conditions become more equal, wages rise, and as wages are higher, conditions become more equal.
1835-1840
When I deny God, it means, philosophically speaking, that I deny the negation of man, and to deny a negation is to affirm.
1841
Figures on the Beach
1890
The word Messiah, far from being particular to the liberator [...], was often given to idolatrous kings and princes, who were in the hand of the Eternal the ministers of his vengeance.
1764
There is no shame in receiving the prize for such great services; but to refuse is more glorious still.
100-120 AD
[...] the greatest probability never amounts to certainty, without which there can be no true Knowledge.
1689
Often the wisest advice [...] comes to nothing for lack of courage when it comes to execution.
1636
Saint Teresa of Avila Interceding for Souls in Purgatory
1597