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Dead Smart People

When you're tired of listening to living idiots.

Français

Kant did not tolerate lulls: it was the name he gave to momentary pauses in conversation when its liveliness languished. He always found some way to rekindle the interest.

1827

Look upon the faculties that are within you, consider them, and say: 'Send now [...] whatever circumstances you please; for I have resources [...] to make honorable use of all events.'

c. 108 AD

There is nothing which is, in itself, beautiful or ugly, worthy of love or hatred [...] these different qualifications depend solely on the sentiments and affections of each man [...].

1742

When [two people] argue, it is because, believing they understand each other, they do not really understand each other completely.

1805

Master of Guillaume Lambert

Virgin and Child

Virgin and Child

ca. 1485

It is with reason that the Philosophers place Riches in intelligible things, and Poverty in sensible things.

c. 253-270 AD

It is certainly a kind of injury to philosophy to constrain it [...] to plead its case on every occasion regarding the consequences it entails, and to justify itself to every art and science it happens to offend.

1841

The greatest difference that exists between a friend and a mercenary is that the lure of the latter is interest, while the attraction of the former is moral honesty and wisdom in discourse.

100-120 AD

The social state is at once so natural, so necessary, and so habitual to man [...] that he never conceives himself otherwise than as a member of a body.

1861

Greek Artist, Attic ?

Head of a comic figurine

Head of a comic figurine

late 4th–3rd century BCE

Nature [...] demands of us not only a commendable use of our activity, but also a noble use of our leisure.

c. 350 BCE

The secret of our kinship with God must be sought in our mortality.

1947

The first teachers of mankind were not enlightened enough to explain to the people what these phantoms were, but they did not fail to tell them what they thought of them.

17th century

An injury done to a member of a political body engages the whole body to demand reparation.

1690

Bernardo Daddi

The Crucifixion

The Crucifixion

ca. 1325–30

It is a greater miracle [...] to have healed the diseases of the soul than to have remedied the ailments of this perishable and mortal body.

1263-1264

Others spend their lives doubting and arguing, without bothering about the subjects of their disputes and their doubts.

1746

Since baths have become so clean, bodies are filthier than ever.

63-64 AD

Self-love, which regards only ourselves, is content when our true needs are satisfied; but vanity (amour-propre), which compares, is never content [...].

1762

Catena (Vincenzo di Biagio)

Portrait of a Venetian Senator

Portrait of a Venetian Senator

ca. 1525

[The Datery is] a sacred office where, in exchange for money, one can receive benefices, dispensations, graces of the Holy Spirit, and even the right to commit sins.

1768

Any man who has managed to deeply understand human nature can always be the architect of his own fortune, and is born to command.

1609

The straightest tree will be the first to be cut down. The well with the sweetest water will be the first to run dry. Your knowledge scares the ignorant, your enlightenment offends the fools.

4th century BC

I will follow the good party to the fire, but only to the fire, if I can.

1580

Georges Seurat

Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque)

Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque)

1887–88

Sickness is the natural state of the Christian.

1670

Wealth should not give rise to pride, nor to idleness; it should only be an instrument in the service of virtue.

c. 387 BC

One must never give full consent except to propositions that appear so evidently true that one cannot refuse it without feeling an inner pain and secret reproaches from reason.

1674-1675

Nothing is less complex than the despotic government of a barbarian chief; the functions it fulfills are rudimentary and few in number.

1893

Greek Artist

Terracotta statuette of an actor

Terracotta statuette of an actor

late 5th–early 4th century BCE

[...] his soul, which is good, will win over his head; he will end up not replying to me, and loving me more.

1741-1784

[Passion possesses] such vividness that it obscures and does not allow all those [representations] which could act to the contrary as opposing motives to reach the understanding.

1839

Philosophy is not a cosmo-theogony [...]. It is the science of silent spirits, of the principles and laws that direct nature and humanity.

1842-1845

[The meadows], in a variegated mood, embellish with a thousand flowers of color their dappled adornment.

1546/1563

French Painter

Monsieur de Bellefourière

Monsieur de Bellefourière

1521

The desire for happiness [...] must force one to indulge in vice when, by the form of government, wealth, honors, and felicity are its rewards.

1772

It is always pleasure and pain that are the prime mover of [our] faculties.

1754

Martyrs make proselytes: the execution of such a man made more reformers than the books of Calvin.

1756

When a great danger has arisen [...], it is better to temporize with the evil than to confront it head-on.

1855

Cypriot artist

Terracotta head with wreath

Terracotta head with wreath

ca. 600–480 BCE

One must distinguish between what is necessary to support our knowledge, and what serves as the foundation for our received doctrines or our practices.

1704

Considered in themselves, deep conscious states have no relation to quantity; they are pure quality; they intermingle in such a way that one cannot say whether they are one or several [...].

1889

Aristotle [...] recognizes [Zeno of Elea] as the inventor of dialectics.

45 BC

One must save the sharpness and brilliance of the mind for subjects that deserve it, just as the lion reserves its efforts for dangers worthy of it.

1636

Roman Artist

Bronze statuette of a comic actor

Bronze statuette of a comic actor

ca. 1st–2nd century CE

There is no social state or law that can make men so similar that education, fortune, and tastes do not place some difference between them.

1835-1840

One understood that the conversation was over, and he took his leave, with a knowing smile, [...] promising the most absolute secrecy.

1926

It would be necessary for all men to be perfectly wise, so that, knowing what they ought to do, one could be assured of what they will do.

1643-1649

science, spurred by its powerful illusion, speeds irresistibly to its limits, where its optimism [...] is wrecked and shattered.

1872

Greek Artist, Attic

Marble statue of a kouros (youth)

Marble statue of a kouros (youth)

ca. 590–580 BCE