Springs gush forth naturally. The superior man is so spontaneously. The sky is high, the earth is thick, the sun and moon are bright, all this without a formula.
4th century BC
If the traveler is shaken, it is because the material points of his body do not maintain invariable positions [...]. They do not, therefore, form a single system.
1922
Virtue consists precisely in knowing how to enjoy, love, and hate as reason demands.
c. 350 BCE
If interest brings men together, it is never but for a few moments; it can only create an external bond between them.
1893
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Reviving a Child
ca. 1530
We men, we are—more human [than the gods].
1886
God sees everything by His immediate presence, being actually present to the things themselves, to all the things that are in the universe.
1715-1716
Vanity, for example, stirs us much more than the love of truth [...].
1674-1675
Perhaps one should abide by the author's judgment, and not needlessly increase the mass of documents [...] that he himself deemed negligible.
1896
Two fulcra (headrest) attachments in the form of mule's heads
ca. late 3rd–1st century BCE
[...] the essential difference between free men and serfs was that the former went on horseback and the latter on foot.
1580
Whatever affection one may feel [...] for others, it is not and cannot be disinterested; [...] the most generous friendship [...] is only a modification of self-love.
1751
[A past thinker as] a judge of the revolutions of our time.
1855
All those [...] who are freed from sadness, fear, and turmoil, [...] are by the same means freed from servitude.
c. 108 AD
Statuette of a warrior-10
7000 BCE - 30 BCE
[...] when they [minds] have once acquiesced to false opinions [...], it is just as impossible to speak to them intelligibly as to write legibly on a paper already scribbled over with writing.
1772
If we abstract from our subject [...], all the properties, all the relations of objects in space and time, space and time themselves, vanish.
1781
[The author] proposes to show not that the two sexes are equivalent, but that they are equal, that woman is capable of the same culture as man, of the same work, of the same virtues.
1926
It should also be noted that it always takes a little more force to lift a weight than to support it [...].
1637
Saints Michael and Francis
ca. 1505–9
Experience teaches [...] the quantity and quality of products on which one can reasonably rely, [...] and one values them according to current market prices.
1776
[The goal is to] guide and light up at night those who wish to use the service to come and go wherever they please.
1662
By wanting to be what one is not, one comes to believe one is something other than what one is, and that is how one goes mad.
1761
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
1263-1264
Bronze crab
3rd–1st century BCE
We ask for the indulgence of the learned [...] for the liberty we have taken in touching the work of an author who so rightly deserves their esteem.
1773-1774
Although [...] all men are equal, [...] age or virtue may give some superiority. [...] However, all this agrees very well with that equality in respect to the dominion of one over another.
1690
All things have sympathy for one another through their irrational life.
c. 253-270 AD
I would sooner understand a city existing without ground than I could imagine a city that could be organized or maintained after the idea of the Divinity had been completely destroyed within it.
1st Century A.D.
Curettes ?
670 BCE - 330 CE
Where the absolute stands on one side and limited positive reality on the other [...] the entire world has become a world of myths. Every figure is an enigma.
1841
[A princess] was born to encourage all the arts and to do good for mankind: she is a lovable philosopher on the throne.
1733
Deserts become villages, villages become cities.
1864-1866
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
Marble head of a young woman from a funerary statue
late 4th century BCE
I did not think I should stay when the republic itself [...] was banished; and it brought me back with it as soon as it saw itself recalled.
September 57 BC
A society of equals can only exist on the understanding that the interests of all are to be regarded equally.
1861
There is nothing false, nothing unworthy of being said and recommended in writing for times to come.
1574
The physician, or the politician, whose prognostics are almost always right [...] gives a very clear proof of his talent and capacity.
1623
Madame Bergeret de Frouville as Diana
1756
Everything that goes beyond its proper limits touches an abyss.
1st century AD
A ready-made idea is an absolutely non-transmissible thing; to be truly conscious of it, [...] one must necessarily [...] have experienced it.
1801
When one passes away with a body full of health and a soul full of tenderness, how could one not be an object of regret?
4th century BC
Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies.
1840
Limestone statuette of Geryon
probably early 5th century BCE
The more being a thing has, the more action and the less passion it has.
c. 1660
Love of the past has nothing to do with a reactionary political orientation. [...] revolution draws all its sap from a tradition.
1943
The most foolish is often then the most inventive.
1772
[Witty remarks and bold actions] have often been like wings to suddenly reach the summit of greatness.
1636
The Card Party
ca. 1665