And the world, for each individual, is the portion of the world with which he is in contact; his party, his sect, his church, his class of society.
1859
The more necessary vice is, the more it is vice; nothing in the world is more vicious than that which, by its nature, is incapable of being good.
1746
You see clearly that this way [of harmony] is the most beautiful and the most worthy of Him.
1696
The relation habitus is not founded immediately in the substance [...] [but] by means of some quality, such as hardness, softness.
c. 1270
Marble portrait of Livia
ca. 14–37 CE
...philosophers were forbidden to teach in Athens.
45 BC
He who in the ordinary affairs of life would admit nothing that was not founded on clear and direct demonstrations could be sure of nothing but perishing in a very short time.
1689
The cause of the idea that man possesses is not his own imagination, but some external cause, which determines him to know this or that.
c. 1660
You are going astray, this is the way to go.
1636
Limestone statue of a male votary holding a bird in the left hand
ca 500–450 BCE
The middle disposition consists in not getting carried away too violently, nor being too insensitive.
4th century BC
Liberty is often a heavy burden for a man. It implies the necessity of perpetual choice, which constitutes the kind of work most repugnant to human creatures.
1926
The man who has reached this point cares as little for praise as for blame. He knows how to rise like a dragon, and to flatten himself like a serpent, bending to circumstances, not clinging to any preconceived notion.
4th century BC
Contradiction experienced to the very depths of one's being is a tearing apart, it is the cross.
1947
The Meditation on the Passion
ca. 1490
To doubt, or merely to believe one doubts, is to feel, it is to think something; and to think or to feel is to exist.
1817
I am in no way a tyrant of opinions, I state my reasons and I wait; I have noticed [...] that my adversary and I have both changed our minds.
1741-1784
Sovereignty cannot be represented. [...] A people that names deputies would be free only at the moment of the election.
1762
All that relates to the existence of the human race as a whole, to its vicissitudes, to its future, becomes a very fertile mine for poetry.
1835-1840
Saints Michael and Francis
ca. 1505–9
True friendship [...] that neither hope, nor fear, nor the prospect of private interest can break.
63-64 AD
The only pain [virtue] requires is to calculate correctly, and to give preference to the greatest happiness.
1751
We are free when our acts emanate from our entire personality, when they express it, when they have that indefinable resemblance to it which we sometimes find between the work and the artist.
1889
[It is] greatly useful [...] for judging things more soundly [...], because one looks at them without passion.
1643-1649
Relief from casket
670 BCE - 330 CE
If, by freely stating [...] the opinion I have of myself, I am to offend the judges, I would rather die.
4th century BC
There are men [...] who, friends of truth, [...] keep their minds in that state of suspension which leaves a free entry to new truths.
1758
When spirits have begun to cool, it will be found that the damage has already been done and suffered, and that there is no longer any remedy.
1513
To be truly clever, one must avoid appearing so and sometimes even seem a fool.
1609
The Drinkers
by 1861
It is because men were grouped that they were able to group things; for in order to classify the latter, they confined themselves to placing them in the groups they themselves formed.
1912
See what great peace Caesar seems to have given us [...]. But has Caesar been able to guarantee us also from fever? [...] from love? He cannot. From grief? He cannot.
c. 108 AD
Above all these gods reigns the God par excellence, the absolute Good, principle of all that is divine, source of the divinity of the other gods.
c. 253-270 AD
There were therefore [...] forgers, deceivers, and deceived people, who died for error: is it then proof of the truth [...] that martyrs died for it?
1764
Roses in a Bowl
1883
Many people have thought that we can only be held accountable for what we do against our conscience.
1580
It is a much more terrible [blindness] to live badly while believing in God.
1670
Most men seem incapable of concluding anything from the first principle of morality.
1674-1675
The clergy are commonly reproached for their harshness; in them it is an effect of the most sublime virtue; a good Christian must be perfectly insensitive.
1768
Patera
mid 6th century BCE
By thinking to extirpate opinions with the sword, we act as with the Hydra, where for one head cut off, seven more would grow back.
c. 1552-1553
As governments [...] seem to have no money for the improvement of schools, it is necessary that private individuals take an interest and contribute.
1777
To abstract is to separate one idea from another to which it appears naturally united.
1754
First thing in the morning [...] to read a book then, I call that a vice!
1888
Terracotta woman baking bread
ca. 600–480 BCE
The contradiction of faith and love.
1841
A fact of this nature can only be understood metaphysically; physically, it is an impossibility.
1836
[The statesman] is more concerned with the public good than with his own, an implacable enemy of tyrants, having no other measure for his private friendships and hatreds than the general utility.
100-120 AD
[The revolutionaries] held an intermediate position between the bourgeoisie and the working classes, preventing, by their constant agitation, things from relapsing into the old, everyday tranquility.
1851-1852
The Annunciation
ca. 1585