In real life, passion is rarely eloquent; in spoken drama it is forced to be so in order to manifest itself in any way.
1876
To be truly clever, one must avoid appearing so and sometimes even seem a fool.
1609
General and abstract truth is the most precious of all goods. Without it, man is blind; it is the eye of reason.
1776-1778
It is by coveting what is not yours that you will lose what is yours.
c. 108 AD
Mirope Savati Gaye
1865
On the threshold of his eternity, somewhere in the spaces, he has made an acquaintance[...]
1926
Since two things of the same kind cannot exist at the same time in the same place, whatever exists anywhere excludes every other thing of the same kind.
1689
One serves one's country either by the innocence of one's morals [...] or by the enlightenment one spreads. Of these two ways [...], the latter [...] provides the most advantages to the public.
1758
What booklet [from a great mind], however small, does not contain some bright light, some general and fertile idea?
1864-1866
Limestone cippus of Olympos
ca. 2nd–3rd century CE
Contempt is the result of an opinion which holds its object to be of no value.
329-323 BC
The concrete is not simple but dialectical.
1841
I am [...] sure that there is a God, in the sense that I am [...] sure that my love is not illusory.
1947
It seems likely that some dreamer [...], to make a usurpation more respectable, granted, on behalf of God, the faculty of curing scrofula.
1764
Madonna and Child
1307
It is not true that definitions are principles, and that one cannot argue about definitions.
1805
For [some], the conciseness of style, the impersonality of the work, are signs of moral elegance.
1663
Wealth in paper was so convenient that people sought only to delude themselves; and [...] they received it with confidence once more.
1776
We cannot develop with the necessary intensity the faculties our function specifically implies without letting the others grow numb from inaction, thus abdicating [...] a whole part of our nature.
1922
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1680
I cannot understand the parts of which my own being is composed.
1580
Men are indifferent regarding the stability of the earth [...] but they are not at all indifferent to these opinions when they are upheld by those they hate.
1674-1675
The passion of laughter is a sudden movement of vanity produced by a sudden conception of some personal advantage, compared to a weakness we notice [...] in others.
1772
No one has yet found the art [...] of taking fortune's pulse and reliably discovering its impending ill will towards us.
1636
The Meeting of Alexander the Great and Diogenes
1605
God practices geometry, and [...] mathematics are a part of the intellectual world, and are the most suited to provide entry to it.
1702
It is often forbidden for good people [to speak], for fear that a free judgment might offend the ears of the great.
1574
The crime that must be punished most severely is the one against which it is most difficult to guard oneself. We can hide from strangers, but there are no secrets from intimacy.
79 BC
The role of our body is to screen from consciousness everything that would be of no practical interest to us, everything that does not lend itself to our action.
1919
Limestone male figure in Egyptian dress
mid-6th century BCE
It is truly astonishing [...] that one can still think of reducing the principle of duty to the doctrine of happiness.
1797-1798
Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
1859
The sole defect, in a sense, of all works, is that they are too long.
1746
[He] found he had made too great an expense; and, wishing to share it with someone, he began to beg for a dinner guest.
1513-1527
Bronze statuette of a camillus (attendant)
ca. 50 BCE–50 CE
Can a prince obtain the esteem of the people when [...] he has, by his reason and his discourse, no superiority over the least of his subjects?
100-120 AD
To give oneself over to endless grief [...] is a childish weakness; to feel none would be an inhuman hardness.
41-43 AD
Only the absolute necessity of moral principles for the maintenance of society can keep these principles pure in our minds.
1757
Of Essence and Quality.
c. 253-270 AD
Terracotta head with wreath
ca. 600–480 BCE
The creation of the world means that it is but a phantom, a nullity. With the beginning of a thing, its end is also necessarily posited.
1841
If one starts from what is actually given, that is, the world, and says: 'The world is God,' it is obvious that [...] the unknown is explained by something even more unknown.
1851
A slight alteration in the brain reduces the man of genius to a state of imbecility.
1773
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest people of past centuries.
1637
Marble head of a kouros (youth)
ca. 525–475 BCE
There are professions that one absolutely cannot, or cannot without great difficulty, practice without sin. The truly converted heart must therefore completely detach itself from everything that can lead it to sin.
1263-1264
The sudden overthrow of [a] republic comes not from it wasting time in deliberation, but from the poor organization of its government and the too small number of its rulers.
1677
Emptiness, peace, contentment, apathy, silence, a global vision, non-intervention; this whole is the formula of the influence of heaven and earth, of the Principle.
4th century BC
All pleasure and all pain are born in the soul.
c. 360 BC
Marble fragment of a hero relief
late 5th century BCE