[The public] likes to see from the height of a principle all the consequences that can be drawn from it; it must therefore reward with a superior title, such as that of genius, whoever provides it with this advantage.
1758
You cannot give a nose to a greyhound, you cannot give the speed of a greyhound to a setter; no matter what you do, the latter will keep its nose, and the former will keep its legs.
1773
The one who is at the very bottom, whom no one pities, who has the power to mistreat no one [...], their suffering remains within them and poisons them.
1947
The inclination to philosophize [...] tends to vex others with philosophical polemics, that is, to argue.
1796
Marble portrait of Matidia Minor
ca. 138–161 CE
The leader [inspired by God] was in this sense far inferior, as a man, to the founder of an empire [...] and to the heroes.
1855
The individual is socialized [...] either because, having no individuality of his own, he merges with his fellows, or because he depends on them to the very extent that he is distinguished from them.
1893
[To report things] with as much freedom as sincerity [...] is an immense and delicate work, which demands as much judgment as activity.
1623
Anger and hatred have nothing to do with justice; they are passions serving only those who do not hold enough to their duty by simple reason.
1580
Grave stele with Hoplite Battle Scene
ca. 390 BCE
As nature abhors a vacuum, it is necessary that [a body] immediately adjoin another surface which, being immobile, is called place.
c. 1270
Classes are only in our heads and not in nature.
1805
When the statesman despairs [...] it is then the clear eye of the artist that discerns the forms [...] of a full and complete humanity.
1896
The face of the entire universe, which remains always the same, although it changes in an infinity of ways.
1661-1676
Christ Bearing the Cross
1489
However funny a thought may seem, it would not fail to be of consequence if it were executed.
1675
In an aristocracy, a long community of memories binds men together [...]; whereas in democracies, where they are almost alike, they always remain strangers to one another.
1835-1840
Any mixture whatsoever [...] absolutely requires measure and proportion, otherwise it is not a mixture, but a confusion.
c. 360 BC
He has a very good mind, but he is not a geometer (which is, as you know, a great flaw) and he does not even understand that a mathematical line is infinitely divisible.
1643-1662
Chalcedony amulet, thunderbolt
664–334 BCE
If we were to make smells, tastes, and sounds succeed one another in her, she would see herself as a color that is successively fragrant, savory, and sonorous.
1754
When a man is dead, one should not call a doctor.
1750
Reason demands [...] that we judge them [the ancients] more ignorant than the new philosophers, since, in our time, the world is two thousand years older and has more experience.
1674-1675
To limit what God can do to what we can understand is to give an infinite scope to our comprehension, or to make God Himself finite.
1689
Saints John the Baptist and Matthew
possibly 1433
[For the complete epic] would have been too extensive and difficult to grasp as a whole.
c. 335 BC
This idea of unity [...] was, in fact, very widespread, especially in the smaller states.
1851-1852
If martyrs proved the truth of a religion, there is no religion, nor sect, that could not be regarded as true.
1766
Like everything in this world, an advantage does not come without its disadvantages. This is what happens with reason, the exclusive privilege of man.
1819
Saint Francis
1450s
We must not forget that the point of view of critique is entirely different from that of psychology...
1896
It is [...] without reason that we imagine women are not as perfect as men, and that we see in them as a flaw what is an essential attribute of their sex.
1926
The populace draws the false conclusion that one must obey superiors only in things good in themselves, and then attributes to itself the judgment of what is good or bad, and finally [...] has no other law than its own conscience.
c. 1552-1553
I do not attribute it so much to the felicity of my genius as to the fact that having more affection for what concerns me than anyone else, I have also better examined the ways which might harm or benefit me.
1643-1649
Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara
early 1480s
The opinion of another about you, into what class of things does it fall? — Into those that do not depend on my free will. — It is nothing to you then?
c. 108 AD
...the public good draws its strength from the particular faculties of its citizens.
100-120 AD
I am wary of all systematisers and I avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity.
1888
Thirty or forty devout women, incited by their confessors, marched in tumult through the streets, demanding justice...
1769
Wall painting fragment with winged figure
ca. 14–68 CE
After eight years, I ceased to be preoccupied with life and death.
4th century BC
Death only becomes honorable through that which is honorable: namely, virtue and disdain for external things.
63-64 AD
When the ship perishes, one often still manages to escape the wreck; but when the storm engulfs the republic, no one escapes its fury.
86-82 BC
All good maxims are in the world, [...] one only has to apply them; but that is very difficult.
1746
Statuette of a youth with duck
900 BCE - 100 BCE
It is with reason that the Philosophers place Riches in intelligible things, and Poverty in sensible things.
c. 253-270 AD
Happiness consists in rest and in pleasure, it is a state of ease and contentment: happiness flees from vigils; it abhors cares and fatigues.
1742
How common it is for a happy man to deceive himself about the immutability of his happiness!
1636
It is for the sake of wicked men that laws must be established.
1869
The Marriage of the Virgin
ca. 1479