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
They are so afraid of letting an ambiguous term slip that they cannot pronounce their own name.
86-82 BC
Acting and being acted upon only occur in things that are contrary to each other, or that have a certain contrariety between them.
c. 350 B.C.E.
All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.
1859
Element
7000 BCE - 330 CE
Those who live for sensations are, materially and morally, only parasites compared to the working and creative people, who alone are human.
1934-1942
Being accustomed to the misfortunes of Fortune, [...] one will not be so surprised, nor so troubled, to learn of the death of a relative, as if one had not received other afflictions before.
1643-1649
Nobility is not hereditary in China, but a personal reward.
1770
[A work] fit to bring general attention back to the true sources of public happiness.
1758
Bronze dagger
ca. 1750–1450 BCE
[The separation of executive and federative powers] could only bring, sooner or later, misfortune and ruin to a state.
1690
Altruism is not destined to become [...] a sort of pleasant ornament of our social life; but it will always be its fundamental basis.
1893
The material reality of the accident [is deemed] 'insufficiently established'.
1643-1662
The effeminate man fears to die, when he has already made a death of his own life!
63-64 AD
The Last Supper
ca. 1325–30
When one does not feel inclined for war, one must strive to reign through the arts of peace.
1512-1527
Within a democracy, individual independence [...] is very great, youth hasty, tastes ill-contained, custom changing, public opinion [...] uncertain or powerless.
1835-1840
In those points where I have grasped the truth, I have some hope that if, on a first reading, some doubt arises [...], on a second reading, the answer will present itself.
1623
The role of the brain in the operation of memory: it does not serve to preserve the past, but first to mask it, then to allow what is practically useful to show through.
1919
Parochialstrasse in Berlin
1831
I call a fool the one who, having committed a folly, does not have the wit and care to smother it on the spot.
1636
Potency and act divide all being [...].
c. 1270
An image remains essentially an image everywhere, whether sculpted and painted, or simply imaginative [...] and in adoring the god it represents, one cannot help but adore it at the same time.
1841
Self-love [...] is content when our true needs are satisfied; but vanity (amour-propre), which compares itself, is never content and cannot be.
1762
The Newborn Baby
1675
I can only recognize myself as obliged towards others insofar as I oblige myself at the same time.
1797-1798
This formidable genius who made kings tremble [...] for the first time has known jealousy.
1718-1778
The money withdrawn from them crossed the provinces and passed on to foreign lands without leaving a trace.
1776
Could it be that boldness was so common to him that, by not admiring it, he respected it less?
1580
Dagger blade
7000 BCE - 330 CE
When one has found the truth, one must stand firm in it; since curiosity is given to us only to lead us to discover it.
1674-1675
How [...] is it possible to conceive that God preserves a creature, who not only hates him mortally [...] but who also strives to lead his friends astray for the pleasure of mortifying him?
17th century
It is impossible to do great things when one's thoughts are entirely on petty things.
100-120 AD
There is nothing [...] that does not serve the public good of the present time.
1574
Terracotta head from a statue
ca. 525–500 BCE
[Humanity is a] virtue of profane morality, which it is necessary to stifle when one wants to be a good Christian; it almost never accords with the interests of the Divinity.
1768
All good maxims are in the world, [...] one only has to apply them; but that is very difficult.
1746
[The government] constantly justified the suspicions [...] of the more revolutionary parties and constantly conjured up [...] the spectre of the old despotism.
1851-1852
One must let the world run its course, and not claim to govern it. Otherwise, corrupted natures will no longer act naturally [...].
4th century BC
Handle attachment
900 BCE - 100 BCE
Of all stratagems, this one is the most commonly and instinctively used.
1830-1831
Will you not leave other men aside, and be your own disciple and your own master?
c. 108 AD
The thirst for pity is a thirst for self-enjoyment, and this at the expense of one's fellow human beings.
1878
Our judgments are never false except through the imperfection of our memories.
1805
Bronze oinochoe: olpe (jug)
6th century BCE
Why be surprised [...] if the divinity judges it more advantageous for me to leave this life at this very moment?
4th century BC
Specialists write for specialists and rarely depart from a scientific tone.
1926
I strongly approve of seeking to demonstrate truths from first principles: this is more useful than one might think.
1695
The soul, purified of all evil and reunited with the Father, would be eternally sheltered from the evils of this world.
c. 253-270 AD
Limestone statuette of a temple boy
4th century BCE