...it is not the storm that torments me, but the seasickness.
49 to 62 A.D.
It is the characteristic of a great power to make evils themselves serve the accomplishment of its work, to use to produce other forms things that have become formless.
c. 253-270 AD
It seems to me that courage is the knowledge of what is to be feared and what is to be hoped for, both in war and in all other circumstances.
c. 380 BC
History shows [...] that, as a rule, administrative law is more developed the more societies belong to a higher type.
1893
Painted limestone funerary slab with a soldier taking a kantharos from his attendant
2nd half of 3rd century BCE
It is from the depths of imagination that [the system] of the universe has been drawn so far; [...] philosophers have only [...] truncated news of the world's system.
1758
If you want to wage war on a prince to whom you are bound by treaties, you will use an attack on one of his friends as a pretext.
1513-1519
One must not believe, therefore, that the universal Being [...] values a man more than an ant, a lion more than a stone.
17th century
Sacrifice is myself present in this body.
1942
Bronze statuette of a priest or offrant
3rd–1st century BCE
The objects surrounding my body reflect my body's possible action on them.
1896
Superstition and despotism thus made an eternal alliance, and united their efforts to make the people enslaved and unhappy.
1766
Upon due consideration of all these collective Ideas, [...] they are but artificial representations that the Mind draws.
1689
It is absolutely necessary that this world be connected without discontinuity [...] to the higher revolutions, so that its entire powerful order is governed by these revolutions.
c. 334 BC
Fragment of a terracotta relief of a woman and child
mid-4th century BCE
The only way to advance the sciences is to separate them well, to first take each one apart as a whole, and only then to try to consider them in their union.
1793
Reasoned errors and truths spread from one to another [...] until they establish themselves as articles of faith.
1741-1784
The mechanism of all intelligence is quite simple [...]. A single primitive fact is inexplicable; all others are necessary consequences of it.
1805
This is when a man is unhappy; this is when his city is taken by assault [...]: it is when his true opinions are taken from him and destroyed.
c. 108 AD
The Spinner
1653
The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs [...].
1859
When one knows neither the human spirit nor the customs of nations, [...] one must know how to doubt, shake off the dust of the academy, and never express oneself with outrageous insolence.
1764
In revolution as in war, it is of the utmost necessity to risk everything at the decisive moment, whatever the risks may be.
1851-1852
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
Saint Francis in Ecstasy
ca. 1650
The word of warriors [...] is subject to caution.
1580
When distant nations cannot have continuous trade with each other [...], value is assessed differently in each.
1776
Their nature is much easier to conceive when we see them gradually come into being in this way, than when we consider them only as already made.
1637
What makes a man worthy of envy is not being considered great by a public so incapable of judging [...], it is being great.
1851
Pansies
1903
An imperfect reason is far above an absence of reason.
1746
The man of the world is entirely in his mask. Being almost never in himself, he is always a stranger there [...]. What he is, is nothing; what he appears to be is everything to him.
1762
Knowledge kills action; for action, the mirage of illusion is necessary — this is what Hamlet teaches us.
1872
The instrument compensates for the defect of ignorance [...], and through necessary movements, it performs by itself, without even the intention of its user, all possible shortcuts.
1642-1645
Bronze handle
late 5th century BCE
I am convinced that impudence and obstinacy are the companions of error: men who go astray give free rein to passion, without ever remaining in that state of reasonable suspension, which alone can protect them from the grossest absurdities.
1751
Exercise this soul in the most excellent functions. There are none higher than to watch over the salvation of the homeland.
54-51 BC
The science he needs is less that of Norms than that of pleasure; his ideal does not aim very high.
1926
Wherever there are men sensitive to passions, and where imagination is master of reason, there is strangeness, and an incomprehensible strangeness.
1674-1675
Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine of Siena and a Carthusian Donor
ca. 1411–24
it was still better to fail in logic than to risk failing in humanity.
1864-1866
Man, without wanting to, without knowing it, creates God in his human image: later this created God creates, wanting to, knowing it, the universe and man.
1841
The true consists in being what it is and in not being what it is not; the false in being what it is not and in not being what it is.
c. 1270
Any man who enters a tyrant's house becomes his slave, though he came there a free man.
100-120 AD
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1795
Montaigne is slightly mistaken...
c. 1552-1553
[A heroic heart] wanted no middle ground between All or Nothing.
1636
It is with extravagant zeal and powerless efforts that men gather to perform intellectual work, expecting everything [...] from the superiority of genius.
1620
I believe that dreams often renew old thoughts in this way.
1704
Limestone upper body of a woman
late 6th century BCE