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Dead Smart People

When you're tired of listening to living idiots.

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There are as many differences of opinion, and as many burning discussions, about what is just as about what is useful to society.

1861

One must always begin with the simplest and easiest things, and dwell on them for a long time before undertaking the search for more complex ones.

1674-1675

One of the most powerful causes that have hindered the progress of science [...] is the recklessness of those whom excessive confidence in their own minds [...] has led to dogmatize about nature.

1620

[It is] the power that priests arrogate to themselves [...] to forgive, in the name of heaven, the sins confessed to them.

1766

Antoniazzo Romano (Antonio di Benedetto Aquilio)

Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi

ca. 1480–81

If I attach value to my body, I make myself a slave; if to my [wealth], a slave again.

c. 108 AD

Some have a prejudice not founded on reason; [...] they criticize that which contradicts their own thought.

c. 335 BC

All things are beautiful to behold, but dreadful in their being.

1851

The way in which a phenomenon develops expresses its nature; for two developments to correspond, there must also be a correspondence in the natures they manifest.

1895

Camille Corot

Italian Landscape

Italian Landscape

ca. 1825–28

It is necessary to change with the times if one wishes to always have fortune on one's side.

1855

This truth was only momentary, and one had to be quick to say it.

1776

[A thoughtful man] perceives at a glance a host of serious consequences in things that seem very indifferent to the common man.

1740s

[He] had that natural quality which, according to Plato, constitutes literary and philosophical aptitude: he was capable of embracing all sciences, and disdained no kind of study or literary knowledge.

100-120 AD

Roman Artist, Cypriot

Marble inscribed base

Marble inscribed base

ca. 2nd century CE

He wanted to work more on touching and disposing the heart than on convincing and persuading the mind; because he knew that the passions [...] that corrupt the heart are the greatest obstacles [...] to faith.

1670

Day that comes so beautifully, a smile suddenly suspended over my city [...], how sweet it is for humans who receive your peace to see the day!

1968

Our homeland is on the heights, the path that leads to it is humble: he who refuses to follow the path, seeks the homeland in vain.

1263-1264

Why should we hate those who do evil, since it is error that drives them to it? It is not the part of a wise man to curse those who are mistaken.

c. 41 AD

Jacob van Ruisdael

Grainfields

Grainfields

mid- or late 1660s

The nature of this world is a mixture of intelligence and necessity. Its goods are what it receives from the divine; its evils come from the primordial nature.

c. 253-270 AD

If one wishes to dismiss [public rumors], one will first establish that many are false, and will cite examples that prove their deceit.

86-82 BC

Science retains and should retain from motion only its visual aspect.

1922

Oh, nothingness of human greatness! Oh, fragility of life! Are these the vain advantages for which, ever biased, we consume ourselves with toil?

1746

French Painter

Louis Morau

Louis Morau

1785

Who then could you reasonably consider more just than a man who has adapted to his present fortune, to the point of never needing what belongs to others?

4th century BC

Man is a god to man: the I and the Thou, that is the primitive pivot of his existence and his consciousness.

1841

To a sound judgment, the most abstract truth is the most practical.

1836

To say the same of a whole people is to suppose a people of madmen: madness creates no right.

1762

Cypriot artist

Limestone Bes

Limestone Bes

late 6th–early 5th century BCE

This verse tells the whole story of Oedipus.

1717

A good [leader] never has weapons that are too short; what they lack in length, their bravery knows how to supplement.

1636

This perfect friendship I speak of is indivisible: each one gives himself so entirely to his friend that he has nothing left to distribute elsewhere.

1580

[...] as long as the phenomena are connected, it does not matter whether we call them dreams or not, since experience shows that we are not mistaken in the measures we take based on phenomena [...].

1704

Greek Artist, Attic

Terracotta statuette of an actor

Terracotta statuette of an actor

late 5th–early 4th century BCE

I wish that those who make this objection remember that absolute Monarchs are but men.

1690

Great peril is like wine; it makes men tender.

1893

We exist only because we feel; we would not exist if we did not feel. Our existence consists in feeling it [...].

1817

There is nothing good, nothing beautiful, nothing sublime, nothing evil in itself, but rather states of soul which make us attribute such qualifiers to things outside of ourselves.

1881

Hans Holbein the Younger

Portrait of a Man in Royal Livery

Portrait of a Man in Royal Livery

1532–35

Objective validity and necessary universality (for everyone) are therefore reciprocal concepts [...].

1783

It is therefore only through good laws that one can form virtuous men.

1758

[The universal Being is] the source of all Beings, which produces them without distinction, [...] man costing no more to produce than the smallest worm or the slightest plant.

17th century

The favor [...] obliges me more than any I could receive from elsewhere.

1643-1649

Zanobi Strozzi

The Nativity

The Nativity

ca. 1433–34

Where is the man who is not perfectly content with his way of life, and who would not believe himself unhappy to change it for that of his neighbor?

1742

He lets all beings evolve according to their destinies, and stands, himself, at the still center of all destinies.

4th century BC

...this body was merely a club, composed of dupes who had allowed the Governments to use them as parliamentary puppets to be exhibited for the amusement of shopkeepers and small tradesmen...

1851-1852

There is nothing false, nothing unworthy of being said and recommended in writing for times to come.

1574

Antonio Joli

Capriccio with St. Paul's and Old London Bridge

Capriccio with St. Paul's and Old London Bridge

ca. 1745