Like a man who walks alone and in the dark, I resolved to go so slowly [...] that if I did not advance far, I would at least guard myself from falling.
1637
Who knows what he should esteem, or despise, or hate, if he does not know what is good or what is evil?
1746
If it is not easy to define wit, one can at least decide [...] that it is a quality agreeable to others, & which [...] inspires joy in all those who are able to feel its worth.
1751
In every century, women are not won over by the same charms; hence so many different depictions of love.
1772
Bronze support in the form of a ram's head and foreleg
1st century BCE–1st century CE
To carry one's mind back into the past, and to make it, so to speak, ancient.
1623
To fear blame at every turn is proof of a gentle and simple character, it is true, but one that has no greatness.
100-120 AD
The heart of the Sage, perfectly calm, is like a mirror, reflecting heaven and earth, all beings.
4th century BC
The honest man refuses to sacrifice a citizen, even with justice. [...] he prefers to be able to recall that he spared him, when he could have destroyed him.
81 BC
Marble cornice fragment
2nd century CE
To say that in such a case the worker should not claim a wage increase [...] is to say that he should be content to be paid in names instead of things.
1865
By substituting the word Priests for that of God, Theology becomes the simplest of sciences. [...] there are no true Atheists, since, unless one is an imbecile, one cannot deny the existence of the Clergy.
1768
A hasty prosperity followed by rapid successes is usually suspect and threatens a prompt change.
1636
It is [...] impossible for the word love, for example, to awaken exactly the same idea in the mind of a child or an old man, of a passionate or timid woman...
1817
John Gray (1731–1811) of Newholm
1776
In truth, my happiness and my freedom surge forth like a storm!
1883-1885
We [...] beseech, in the most urgent manner, to meet our expectations.
1498
What is good in the hypotheses of Epicurus and Plato, of the greatest materialists and the greatest idealists, is united here.
1702
The moral ideal, from being one, simple, and impersonal, is becoming more and more diversified.
1893
The Spinner
1653
One would often be mistaken if one always judged what others must feel by what one feels oneself.
1674-1675
Love breathes [...] a dormant and covered fire that winter had concealed within our veins.
1546/1563
[The words] public good, happiness of the subjects, glory of the nation [...] never announce anything but fatal orders, and the people groan in advance when their masters speak to them of their paternal cares.
1762
It is a great enough miracle to be doubled; and those who speak of being tripled do not know its height.
1580
Bronze shield boss
8th–7th century BCE
Perhaps [...] it is out of benevolence that the god grants me [...] to end my life not only at the most suitable time, but in the least painful way.
4th century BC
For love, what is earthly is heavenly; the happiness it finds in itself is the supreme bliss. Love elevates the finite to the infinite.
1842-1845
Rights of humanity opposed to property rights! What jargon!
1776
On this arid strip of land were born and grew the colonies [...] that were one day to become the United States of America. It is still there today that the center of power is found.
1835-1840
The Story of Esther
1422
The property of 'where' (ubi) is to be in every terminated body [...], because place is not due to the indivisible as such.
c. 1270
Outside of us, reciprocal externality without succession; within, succession without reciprocal externality.
1889
I very much fear that the taste I have acquired for solitude may be more lasting than I thought.
1759-1774
Work discipline should no longer be unilateral, but based on the notion of reciprocal obligations. Only on this condition can it be accepted, and no longer simply endured.
1934-1942
The Madonna of Humility, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Pietà
ca. 1465
Each being, taken in itself without any relation to other things, contains a perfection that is limited only by its own essence.
1661-1676
Shall I then, instead of using my strength for the purpose I received it, cry and groan over events?
c. 108 AD
No one willingly reverts to the past, unless all his actions have been submitted to the censorship of his conscience [...].
c. 49 AD
God placed the soul in the world so that, seeing the evils of which matter is the principle, it might return to the Father and be forever freed from such contagion.
c. 253-270 AD
Carlo Rimbotti (1518–1591)
1548
the broken existence, the lines survive, collected by a pious sympathy.
1926
The principle of democratic government is liberty. [...] The first characteristic of liberty is the alternation of ruling and being ruled.
c. 350 BCE
To choose reasonably, one must first know even the superfluous, even the impossible.
1766
[...] which is very tedious in the long run when one does not have supple knees.
1764
Landscape with Figures
1914
Without assiduous renewal, one is not able to receive this new wine which will not be put into old wineskins.
1656-1657
The diversion is a particularly shameless stratagem when it consists of completely abandoning the subject to raise a personal objection.
1830-1831
This power shall be employed for the good of the body politic, and for the preservation of that which is the property of its members.
1690
The question, 'Need I obey my conscience?' is as present to those who never heard of the principle of utility, as to utilitarians.
1861
Saint Francis in Ecstasy
ca. 1650