When you're tired of listening to living idiots.
In taking up arms, the working class was fully aware that this was not its own direct struggle, but it followed the tactic [...] of not allowing any class that had risen on its shoulders [...] to consolidate its class rule, without at least opening up a wide field for the working class to fight for its own interests.
1851-1852
I know not what I want, nor what I would want. I know not what I am nor what I will be.
1759-1774
Women are, just like men, suited for all higher professions, for all jobs.
1926
A judgment, therefore, is never false in itself; it can only be so in relation to others.
1817
ca. 1540
Man is a god to man: the I and the Thou, that is the primitive pivot of his existence and his consciousness.
1841
The great and unfortunate errors [...] on the matter of government, have arisen [...] from the fact that these different powers have been confounded.
1690
It is a great delight to oblige and help friends, guests, and companions; and it is only individual property that ensures us this happiness.
c. 350 BCE
It is self-interest that breaks the bonds of all alliances.
1855
ca. 1625–30
[By lying...] I bring it about, as much as it is in my power, that statements in general find no credence, [...] which is an injustice done to humanity in general.
1797
No dissension is so great or so dangerous as that which comes from religion: it separates citizens, neighbors, friends, relatives [...], it breaks alliances [...] and penetrates to the depths of hearts to [...] entrench irreconcilable hatreds.
c. 1552-1553
Superimposed readings: to read necessity behind sensation, to read order behind necessity, to read God behind order.
1947
It is not without reason that mental illnesses go hand in hand with civilization, nor that they are more prevalent in cities than in the countryside.
1893
1850
Each being, taken in itself without any relation to other things, contains a perfection that is limited only by its own essence.
1661-1676
To its faith are committed the examples of our ancestors, the vicissitudes of things, the foundations of civil prudence [...].
1623
Fast, drink water, forbid yourself every kind of desire, so that you may one day know how to desire in accordance with reason.
c. 108 AD
Trade will be like a river, which would distribute itself into a multitude of channels, to successively water all the lands. This revolution will only end to begin again.
1776
1597
[...] the qualities that constitute the essence of the body.
c. 253-270 AD
The desire for reputation, far from deserving blame, seems inseparable from virtue, genius, talent, and a generous and elevated character.
1751
[He] never ceased to prove to him that there was little virtue and little happiness on earth; except perhaps in Eldorado, where no one could go.
1759
If there exists among men enamored with virtue anyone who has lived with a more useful man than Socrates, I regard him as the most fortunate of men.
4th century BC
1698
Simplicity that limits itself to the necessary is a great good, because it removes both the desire for and the worry about the superfluous.
100-120 AD
The man of common sense is a man in whose character laziness dominates.
1758
To say that God has revealed Himself only to announce mysteries is to say that God has revealed Himself only to remain unknown, to hide His ways from us, to confuse our minds, to increase our ignorance.
1766
Exercise this soul in the most excellent functions. There are none higher than to watch over the salvation of the homeland.
54-51 BC
mid 6th century BCE
What good is it to adorn what was created for utility, not for pleasure?
63-64 AD
It is very certain [...] that in general there is a sufficient reason for everything.
1715-1716
For it is very surprising that we laugh, and the usual method of explanation [...] does not shed light on this little mystery.
1900
We improve ourselves by the loss of our reason and when it is dormant; the two natural ways to enter the cabinet of the gods [...] are fury and sleep.
1580
ca. 1345–50
In the past, the ancients served in times of order, and withdrew in times of disorder. [...] It is better to withdraw to remain pure, than to be soiled by contact with usurpers.
4th century BC
The ever-increasing crowd of readers and their constant need for novelty ensure the sale of a book they hardly value.
1835-1840
The only school of true moral sentiment is a society between equals.
1869
Disorders of the imagination are extremely contagious, and [...] slip and spread into most minds with great ease.
1674-1675
670 BCE - 330 CE
Pity is a natural sentiment, which, by moderating in every individual the activity of self-love, contributes to the mutual preservation of the whole species.
1755
As they spare no one, so no one spares them; and were they at the height of elevation, the last of men will believe himself entitled to strike at them.
1636
It is all over with man when he becomes altruistic.
1888
What is there that one cannot find in the knowledge of man?
1746
4th–3rd century BCE
I am somewhat reluctant to [write to you], for fear that [...] this admirable agreement, which was between us and so dear to me, may begin to be contradicted.
1643-1662
While [...] memory, mind, reason, genius wear out and dull with age, the will alone suffers neither damage nor modification.
1819
The world would be destroyed in the blink of an eye if God withdrew His regulating action from it.
1263-1264
Instead of that speculative philosophy [...], one can find a practical one, by which [...] we might [...] make ourselves, as it were, the masters and possessors of nature.
1637
late 1st–early 2nd century CE