[Hope] makes them lose sight of present happiness; it renders them useless to society; it makes them believe [...] that God will reward in heaven their uselessness, their dark moods, [...] their idleness.
1766
[...] that glory which the people, in their stupidity, attach to conquests, and which historians, even more stupid, love to celebrate [...].
1776
I am not surprised, [...] everyone values their life for what it is worth.
1512-1527
My desire to be loved [...] by my equals in the state of nature, imposes on me a natural obligation to bear them a like affection.
1690
Marble head of a young woman from a funerary statue
late 4th century BCE
He was believed in matters one did not understand, because he had begun by being right in matters one did understand; he seduced because he was agreeable [...].
1764
The vision we ordinarily have of objects [...] is but a vision that our attachment to reality, our need to live and to act, has led us to narrow and to empty.
1934
One ordinarily judges what others will do by what one would want to do if one were in their place.
1643-1649
But, as I do not know them, I cannot explain them, for I have no clear idea of my own mind[...]
1674-1675
Charles de Saint-Radegonde, called Charles Coguin, Abbot of Anchin
ca. 1511–20
We expressly forbid all persons [...] from interfering in such an establishment, or causing it any trouble or hindrance, under any pretext whatsoever.
1662
Works [of art] are mirrors; when a monkey looks into them, they cannot reflect the features of an apostle.
1851
The first reason for voluntary servitude is custom.
c. 1552-1553
Ulysses is true wisdom, which, without being captivated by material charms [...], turns all its desires towards the heavens.
c. 253-270 AD
Portrait of a Man
1750
When [the will] enters the right path, one who was not a good person becomes so; when it strays, the person becomes perverse.
c. 108 AD
All our knowledge is but judgments made.
1805
There are only passions without truth, truth without passion, heroes without heroic deeds, history without events.
1851/1852
To hate one's soul is to resist its guilty desires. [...] When our soul suggests thoughts contrary to the law of God, we must reject it with horror.
1263-1264
Eye Miniature
1800
One cannot see a multitude of particular facts separately without finally discovering the common bond that unites them.
1835-1840
...nothingness is surely preferable to something repugnant!
1876
Of all Rousseau's writings, the Social Contract is perhaps the one most talked about and least read.
1762
Zeal [...] changes into hatred and envy [...] when it is led by a human passion.
1580
Upper part of a limestone warrior from a chariot group
first half of the 6th century BCE
Although a happy quickness of mind is a gift of nature, art can nevertheless help and perfect it.
1636
We do nothing but think, [...] we procure for ourselves only thoughts, and phenomena are only thoughts.
1686
Why are we more susceptible to pain than to pleasure [...]? It is because pain agitates the strands of the bundle in a violent and destructive manner [...].
1774
[...] divine or religious right is founded on a pact, without which there is no other right than natural right [...].
1670
Statuette of a bird
900 BCE - 100 BCE
When the statesman despairs [...] it is then the clear eye of the artist that discerns the forms [...] of a full and complete humanity.
1896
If [...] the sacred principle is nothing other than society hypostasized and transfigured, ritual life must be interpretable in lay and social terms.
1912
The love of glory and reputation is another spring of our machine, which gives much force to the moral sentiment; it is the passion of great souls.
1751
Pride commands imperiously; it is deaf to all representation; it wants to be obeyed without examination.
1772
Fragment of a terracotta plaque
7th century BCE
He who flatters the people the least should also seek the least revenge on them.
100-120 AD
This mathematical calculation of the unknown motion of a celestial body [...] awaits its confirmation from future observations.
1755
That which does not perish is so present, so dominant within us, that as long as we are alone with ourselves, we are not sensitive to the encroachments of time [...].
1870
There exist well-known [remedies]; but the gradation to be followed in administering them is so delicate [...] that very few people are able to benefit from them.
1623
The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda)
ca. 1772
In proportion to a man's lack of confidence in his own solitary judgment, he bestows more implicit faith in the infallibility of 'the world' in general.
1859
Manners spoil more easily than they are corrected.
1746
Acting and being acted upon only occur in things that are contrary to each other, or that have a certain contrariety between them.
c. 350 B.C.E.
Just as the reality of this world is the sole foundation of facts, so the other reality is the sole foundation of good.
1957
Seated male figurine
ca. 600–480 BCE
Let us welcome [old age] and love it: it is full of sweetness for those who know how to use it.
63-64 AD
Power does not last, and happiness does not consist, as [...] politicians would have us believe, in that.
4th century BC
Without reason, it is impossible to opine, whether well, or badly, or anything at all.
c. 360 BC
Preserve for the republic a citizen [...] for what such a man is worth.
59 BC
Limestone cippus of Olympos
ca. 2nd–3rd century CE