Her banners were those of public concord.
1768
If I become aware of this loss of my faculties, and I displease myself, how could I still find pleasure in living?
4th century BC
The bourgeoisie is bound to fear the stupidity of the masses so long as they remain conservative, and the intelligence of the masses as soon as they become revolutionary.
1851/1852
[...] simultaneity is [...] the link, the point of contact between internal duration, which is real duration, and external time [...].
1890
Virgin and Child Enthroned
ca. 1345–50
The end [...] of this power [...] must have no other end or purpose than the preservation of the members of society [...] their lives, their liberties, and their possessions.
1690
I am persuaded that resolution and promptness are very necessary virtues for affairs already begun.
1643-1649
As long as [our judgments] are difficult and slow, we have a detailed consciousness of them, and as soon as they have been repeated often enough [...], they occur almost without our noticing.
1801
It seems to me that in reality holiness is, if I may say so, the minimum for a Christian.
1957
Madame la Comtesse de Boufflers and Thérèse
mid-1760s
I divided my time between study, pleasure, and business, in such a way that none of these could harm the other.
1518
One can say of a man that he is more clothed if he has several garments, and less clothed if he has fewer.
c. 1270
[Hell] is the kitchen hearth that keeps the Sacerdotal pot boiling in this world.
1768
What is necessary is to compare not isolated variations, but regularly constituted series of variations.
1895
The Organ Rehearsal
1885
Knowing nothing of the beginning and the end, can we know whether or not the world is governed by a law [...]?
4th century BC
[A heroic heart] wanted no middle ground between All or Nothing.
1636
Truths that are pernicious to society, if there are any of this kind, must give way to good and salutary errors.
1751
In the search for a new truth, who presents the objects of comparison to the inventor? Chance. It is the common master of all inventors.
1772
Tobias Curing His Father's Blindness
1630–35
It is impossible to honor those one despises, nor to willingly obey those one hates and holds in horror.
c. 1552-1553
Nature, by the sole action of its forces left to themselves, knows how to bring forth marvelous developments even from chaos.
1755
[...] punctuation [...] is a whole task, because one cannot see to which clause the conjunction belongs.
329-323 BC
Each century has its dominant spirit which nothing can resist. Should [...] contrary principles be introduced under its reign, it soon penetrates them, and [...] assimilates them.
1835-1840
Buckle
7000 BCE - 330 CE
To have a great deal of common sense, one must be made in such a way that reason dominates feeling, and experience dominates reasoning.
1746
It is a demonstration, but an imperfect one, which requires or presupposes a truth that still deserves to be demonstrated.
Late 17th - early 18th century
Stevin explains Archimedes' solutions regarding bodies submerged in water by the pressure that the upper layers of a liquid exert on the lower layers.
1663
The mystical philosopher meditates on the reason for being of nature and man, but he does so in the imagination; he believes he is meditating [...] on another personal Being, different from man and nature.
1841
Marble architectural fragment with palmette from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis
3rd or 2nd century BCE
How are compounds formed from the first elements, if there is neither contact, nor touch, nor mixtion of any kind?
c. 253-270 AD
It is folly to want to shed light on an ill for which there is no medicine that does not worsen and aggravate it.
1580
It would be absurd to say that whoever writes in French thinks in French; character [...] does not transform as easily as language.
1926
Although one cannot command the mind as one commands the tongue, yet minds are in some way dependent on the sovereign [...].
1670
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints
ca. 1504
Evil is inherent in good itself; one could not remove one without the other; and they both have their source in the same causes.
1763
The will in itself has no goal, because it has no cause.
1819
If the fact is true, one must nonetheless take all these precautions in recounting it; otherwise, the truth can often seem implausible.
86-82 BC
To still appear to be the friend of a man whose friend one has ceased to be is to reserve for oneself the means of harming him by deceiving honest people.
1782-1789
View of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme
1896–98
Man is something that must be overcome.
1883-1885
The happiness of others is like a house that rises higher than their own. If they could remove what obstructs their view, they would ask for nothing more.
c. 72-126 AD
[...] we have an inner feeling that all our perceptions of objects are made in us without us, and even in spite of us [...].
1707
For how many men has wealth been an obstacle to philosophy! Poverty walks with a free step, in complete safety.
63-64 AD
Marble head of Herakles
1st or 2nd century CE
[A remedy is] certain in the hands of a good practitioner [...] but [it is a] deadly instrument in the hands of an ignorant person.
1623
[A ruler] knows that if he punished all who insult him, he would have no one left to rule.
c. 108 AD
One cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, or because it would be wise.
1859
Imagination is memory itself, having reached all the vividness of which it is capable.
1754
Limestone statuette of a temple boy
4th century BCE