Reason is entirely mistaken about this concept [of cause]; it falsely takes it for its own child, [when] it is but a bastard of the imagination, which, impregnated by experience, has subjected certain representations to the law of association.
1783
What the State declares to be just and good must be considered as so declared by each individual.
1677
One must always see the symptom of some obstacle in the fact that an artist interrupts his creative work to present himself to the world as a theorist.
1896
There is no [religion] that is not the religion of some country.
1772
The Nativity
ca. 1433–34
The whole inferiority of the animal lies there: it is a specialist. It does what it does very well, but it cannot do anything else.
1882
Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
1859
[The innovator] has for enemies all those who derived profit from the old institutions, and finds but lukewarm defenders in those who would profit from the new.
1855
It is no more difficult to conceive how an Army of ten thousand men can make a single idea.
1689
Limestone funerary stele of a boy
3900 BCE - 100 CE
Others do not so much impress upon things the image of their mind as that of their passions, never losing sight of the interest of their party [...].
1623
Softness had, in the course of a long peace, weakened the nation's courage, pleasures had corrupted it, [...] and adversity alone could reawaken the ancient virtue.
1746
Of Mixtion where there is total penetration.
c. 253-270 AD
I am not surprised that wine lovers make such a big deal of the one who, according to them, planted the vine.
1772
The Birth of Cupid
1550
Nature has given us a mind eager for knowledge [...] it has created us as spectators of its sublime scenes.
c. 62-65
Forgetting one's intentions is the most common form of stupidity.
1879
There is nothing [...] that does not serve the public good of the present time.
1574
If it is good for you to drink it, then drink it; [...] If it is good for you, and you drink it, do not speak of it before those who do not like things done differently from them.
c. 108 AD
A Man with the Initials JD
1790
The life I am forced to lead does not leave me the disposition of enough time to acquire a habit of meditation according to your rules.
1643-1649
Therefore, what you are describing is not a part of virtue, but virtue as a whole.
c. 380 BC
It is believed that new societies will change their face daily, and I am afraid that they will end up being too invariably fixed in the same institutions, the same prejudices, the same mores [...].
1835-1840
To be fit for good company, one must have wit as well as politeness.
1751
Castle by a River
1647
He who has the gift of style makes no other reproach to life than that of being too difficult to paint; but he loves it precisely because of the trouble he takes.
1926
[Faith] forbids doubt and examination; it deprives man of the faculty of exercising his reason, of the freedom to think; it reduces him to the stupefaction of beasts [...].
1766
For the disciple of the Principle, the essential thing is the preservation of one's life. [...] The common men of this age, on the contrary, compromise their lives for their own interests; it is lamentable!
4th century BC
Political, administrative, and judicial functions are becoming more and more specialized. The same is true of artistic and scientific functions.
1893
The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara
ca. 1510
Universal suffrage had fulfilled its mission. [...] It had to be abolished, either by a revolution or by the reaction.
1850
The extreme inequality in the manner of living [...] these are the fatal proofs that most of our ills are of our own making, and that we would have avoided nearly all of them by preserving the simple, uniform, and solitary way of life prescribed to us by nature.
1755
One willingly made war in order to command; the other commanded in spite of himself, to repel the war being waged against him.
100-120 AD
Abundance of speech [...] are no small advantages [...] when they are governed by sound judgment, a wise and moderate mind.
86-82 BC
Landscape with Boy Fishing
1818
The cup is to Bacchus what the shield is to Mars. One will therefore say 'the shield, cup of Mars', and 'the cup, shield of Bacchus'.
c. 335 BC
[...] heroism [...] receives a mortal blow only when [its] weaknesses are declared.
1636
The best way to defend the truth [...] is not to argue, for in the end it is better [...] to leave [false scholars] in their errors than to attract their aversion.
1674-1675
Pascal renounced [...] including anything in a scientific study that would recall either the personality of the author or the personality of his predecessors.
1663
François Joseph Lefebvre (1755–1820)
1800
The more one is enlightened and informed about the works of God, the more one will be disposed to find them excellent and entirely satisfying to all that one could have wished for.
1686
Chance is but a word, and the need they have of it to build their systems proves how necessary it is to recognize a first principle.
1755
Europe was spiritually uprooted, cut off from that antiquity where all the elements of our civilization have their origin; and it went on to uproot the other continents [...].
1942
If an author believes that a few happy verses are enough to sustain a work [...], he is still at the ABCs of the craft.
1741-1784
Mademoiselle Nys
1899
One does not indifferently make clothes [...] from any kind of substance, but one takes a substance that has such a quality, as softness, ease of folding.
c. 1270
If one starts from what is actually given, that is, the world, and says: 'The world is God,' it is obvious that [...] the unknown is explained by something even more unknown.
1851
Glory and tranquility are things that cannot lodge in the same dwelling.
1580
The first judgment, the source of all truth: I am sure of what I feel.
1805
Rock crystal bead with striations
ca. 2200–1450 BCE