What is [...] the law? To look after what is our own, and not to desire what is not our own; to use what is given to us; not to regret what is not given to us.
c. 108 AD
The people, consequently, may desire to oppress a part of their number; and precautions are as much needed against this as against any other abuse of power.
1859
Decency, or the observance of the regard due to the age, sex, station, and character of a person, may be counted among the qualities that are agreeable to others and deserve to be approved.
1751
The necessity of lighting the streets for a longer period of time was soon felt.
1662
Relief from casket
670 BCE - 330 CE
Sensation has for its general condition that the universal animal be sympathetic to itself; without this, how could one thing partake in the power of another thing from which it is very distant?
c. 253-270 AD
If one has one's 'why?' of life, one can get along with almost any 'how?'.
1888
Visual space and tactile space.
1896
after God and religion, this respect [that one owes to oneself] is the most powerful brake there is to prevent us from falling into vice.
1627
Saint Stephen (with the Angel of the Annunciation)
1389
All men are born sincere, and die deceivers.
1746
Nothing makes us more worthy of divine benevolence than the care we take of our neighbor.
1263-1264
Stop trying to forcibly introduce your artificial virtues that are contrary to nature.
4th century BC
So long as they seek science and create systems, [...] they see in poverty only poverty, without seeing in it the revolutionary, subversive side, which will overthrow the old society.
1847
The Serenade
ca. 1678–80
All our intuitions are nothing but representations of phenomena; [...] the things we perceive are not in themselves as we perceive them.
1781
...an analysis of political and social oppression, of its permanent causes, its mechanism, its current forms.
1934
Democracy does not prevent [certain] classes of men from existing; but it changes their spirit and modifies their relations.
1835-1840
The union of the senses increases the number of ways of being: the chain of ideas becomes more extensive and varied.
1754
Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara (1541–1609)
ca. 1600
The courts [...] have often put the innocent to death, and often acquitted the guilty whose language had moved their pity or flattered their ears.
4th century BC
Whole years of pursuit for a moment's enjoyment, that is the arithmetic [of passions].
1759-1774
I approve that everyone should follow nature in all things.
1926
There can be no doubt that we are naturally free, since we are all companions, and it cannot enter anyone's mind that nature has placed anyone in servitude [...].
c. 1552-1553
Diana
ca. 1760
More concerned with the interest of our vanity than with the interest of the one asking for advice, [...] our counsels have been nothing but our own eulogy.
1758
I do not presume so much of myself as to believe I can foresee all that may cause difficulty for each person.
1641
[...] human fantasy can no longer conceive of anything, good or bad, that is not in it: 'Nothing so absurd can be said that has not already been said by some philosopher'.
1580
What does a superior mind matter, if the heart does not match it?
1636
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints
ca. 1504
Wherever he turned, he met with blows and saw swords leveled at his face and eyes, and was driven, like a wild beast, struggling amidst the hands of his assailants.
100-120 AD
The man who cannot govern his passions [...] cannot, however, enjoy peace of soul or the knowledge and love of God, and it is necessary that he perish.
1661-1676
The first judgment, the source of all truth: I am sure of what I feel.
1805
Because the individual is not self-sufficient, it is from society that he receives everything he needs, just as it is for society that he works.
1893
Die-counter or draught piece
3900 BCE - 100 CE
[One must act] with that eagerness and prudence which are [...] customary.
1498
Wisdom has its seat higher up; it does not educate the hands, it is the teacher of souls.
63-64 AD
[...] nothing being so pleasing to the Eye as Truth is to the Mind, nothing being so deformed, nor so incompatible with the Understanding as a Lie.
1689
Truth is nothing other than a real relation, either of equality or of inequality.
1674-1675
The Meditation on the Passion
ca. 1490
The mystery of faith.
1841
[Theology], this divine science, has often only appeared more entangled as a result.
1768
While the child's mind is completely devoid of perceptions, he is already inculcated with notions and judgments, which are true prejudices.
1909
Extension is an attribute that cannot constitute a complete being, [...] it expresses only a present state, but in no way the future and the past, as the notion of a substance must.
1686
Limestone inscribed fragment
3900 BCE - 100 CE
Adversity tears the soul, but happiness corrupts it.
1754
If arms were taken up so that the lowest of men could enrich themselves with the property of others [...], then this war, instead of bringing peace and liberty [...], has only made the yoke of oppression heavier.
79 BC
[Certain peoples] all live poorly, and only know that from their lands came swarms that conquered the richest countries on earth.
1756
If the Persians had triumphed [at Marathon], what would have become of Western civilization? [...] Athens deserves eternal gratitude.
c. 350 B.C.E.
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1780