If he reads less well than another child in our books, he reads better in the book of nature; his mind is not in his tongue, but in his head.
1762
Ideology is a part of zoology.
1801
The most formidable of all the evils that threaten the future of the United States arises from the presence of the Blacks on their soil.
1835-1840
[...] the charity you owe to your kin should make you desire that they yield to reason, but in all things, and not simply in what concerns us; otherwise, it would be an effect of cupidity and not of charity.
1643-1662
Basket of Fruit
ca. 1620
Those who maintain that from mere possible notions, ideas, or essences one can never infer actual existence [...] deny the possibility of the self-existent being.
Late 17th - early 18th century
Every true definition contains nothing more than the simple nature of the thing defined.
1661-1676
May all suffering make the universe enter the body.
1947
It seems that this new morality has made men weaker, and has delivered the world to audacious scoundrels.
1513-1519
Self-Portrait of an Unidentified Artist
1785
What is true in Spain is false in France; what is true in Paris is false in Rome; what is certain among the Jacobins is uncertain among the Cordeliers [...].
1674-1675
[If precious metals became common,] no more cities, consequently, no more great fortunes. But also no more begging [...].
1776
He who knows how to think, reigns visibly or invisibly over all those who only know how to speak or act.
1609
How many are there [...] who respect authority [...] when they see another, easier path to achieve honors and all the objects of their ambition?
59 BC
Abner's Messenger before David; The Queen of Sheba Bringing Gifts to Solomon; The Annunciation
ca. 1480
all individuals are comic as individuals and, therefore, not tragic.
1872
[He] best made the Romans feel what charm eloquence adds to moral beauty, and that right is invincible when it is supported by the talent of speech.
100-120 AD
It is impossible for men ever to search accurately for [...] the agreement [...] of Ideas, while their thoughts only roll [...] upon sounds of doubtful and uncertain meaning.
1689
In ethics, it is not enough to preach integrity; it must be practiced.
1840
Strainer
10th century BCE
It is folly to want to shed light on an ill for which there is no treatment that does not increase and worsen it [...].
1580
We will consider this body as a machine, which, having been made by the hands of God, is incomparably better ordered [...] than any of those that can be invented by men.
1637
To be fit for good company, one must have wit as well as politeness.
1751
One of the characteristics of man is that his innate predispositions are very general and very vague.
1922
Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer
1597
It is entirely superfluous to forbid women what their constitution does not permit them. Competition is sufficient to prevent them from doing anything they cannot do as well as men, their natural competitors.
1869
The admirable invention of the bill of exchange was born from the depths of despair, and only then could commerce elude violence and sustain itself throughout the world.
1764
Time is not a condition, but a simple effect of consciousness; it does not constitute it, it proceeds from it.
1890
A good [leader] never has weapons that are too short; what they lack in length, their bravery knows how to supplement.
1636
Marble two-sided relief
1st century CE
She has a devilish wit. [...] it is her frankness above all that pleases me.
1759-1774
Position is the order or disposition of parts in a place.
c. 1270
If I can [...] by resorting to paper, make some honest man speak what I feel, my spirits, fed by this freedom, immediately regain new strength.
1574
We ceased to possess all things as soon as we wanted to possess things for ourselves.
63-64 AD
Fragmentary terracotta relief of a reclining figure
late 6th–early 5th century BCE
And animals are born in putrefied things, because the natural heat that is released recomposes and gathers the secreted and divided parts.
c. 334 BC
What makes books virtuous is that they are readable, and what makes orators virtuous is that they are interesting.
1870
A people without money, if they are enlightened, is commonly a people without tyrants.
1772
You cannot take from man the inclinations of humanity [...] any more than you can get rid of your senses, however much you might want to.
c. 108 AD
The Flight into Egypt
1470s
Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.
c. 375 BC
He who blames the whole of the world by considering only its parts is therefore unjust; he should examine the parts in their relation to the whole, to see if they are in accord and in harmony with it.
c. 253-270 AD
True tolerance and freedom of thought are the true antidotes to religious fanaticism.
1766
We know nothing of these objects except the way in which we perceive them; and this way, which is our own, may well not be necessary for all beings [...].
1781
Bronze rod tripod
ca. 1250–1050 BCE
If the wage did not rise [...] to compensate for the increased value of the necessaries of life, the price of labor would fall below the value of labor.
1865
[The spirit of the Sage is] superior to heaven, to earth, to all beings, dwells in a body to which it is not attached, [...] and knows everything through global knowledge in its motionless unity.
4th century BC
Reason deceives us more often than nature.
1747
The love that God has for me is nothing other than my own self-love deified and personified.
1841
The Conversion of Saint Paul
1440