We must not [...] present social life as a simple resultant of individual natures, since, on the contrary, it is rather the latter that result from the former.
1893
It is the all-or-nothing changes that awaken human intelligence and prevent it from falling asleep in immobility.
c. 350 B.C.E.
This power cannot legitimately be an absolute and arbitrary power with regard to their lives and their property.
1690
Men have never shown more wit than when they have been jesting.
1702
Fragmentary marble sarcophagus with scenes from the Oresteia
mid-2nd century CE
Some, too fond of their own wit, audaciously invent facts.
1623
If I knew it was my destiny to be sick, I would go towards the sickness of my own accord.
c. 108 AD
The fires of dawn are not as sweet as the first glances of glory.
1746
Only he is cited as a fool who is not a fool of the common foolishness.
1758
Male head wearing a helmet
ca. 600 BCE
Religion acquires the force of law only by the decree of those who hold the right to command.
1670
It must be admitted that evil is but a defect of good (éllipsis toû agathoû).
c. 253-270 AD
The courts [...] have often put the innocent to death, and often acquitted the guilty whose language had moved their pity or flattered their ears.
4th century BC
If to have liberty it is necessary only to desire it, if only a simple act of will is needed, will there be any nation in the world that still deems it too expensive [...]?
c. 1552-1553
Limestone statuette of a male votary with Cypriot shorts and a diadem
first half of the 6th century BCE
Immense treasures [...] have dissipated and vanished, but fame has collected and preserved the witty words they have spoken.
1636
Not only is [a brilliant deed] necessary to begin to gain credit, it is indispensable to preserve and increase it.
1513-1519
The two hypotheses are equivalent for the mathematician. But the same is not true for the philosopher.
1922
A man must be judged by himself, not by his adornments.
1580
Young Girl in a Pink-and-Black Hat
ca. 1891
The absence of discussion causes not only the grounds to be forgotten, but too often the very meaning of the opinion itself. [...] Instead of a strong conception and a living belief, only a few phrases learned by rote remain.
1859
Democracy does not bind men strongly to one another; but it makes their habitual relationships easier.
1835-1840
In the face of the work [...], one thinks neither of what is interesting, nor of what is entertaining, [...] nor of art in general; one only feels what is necessary about it.
1876
He who has modest tastes does not create trouble for himself; he who is concerned only with his inner progress is not affected by any deprivation.
4th century BC
Terracotta statuette of a dancing girl
4th century BCE
The chains of diamond are not [...] fear and force [...] but rather the affection, zeal, and gratitude that the justice and virtue of leaders inspire in the hearts of their subjects.
100-120 AD
Faith is a virtue invented by men who feared the enlightenment of reason, who wanted to deceive their fellow men in order to subject them to their own authority [...].
1766
When thinking only of ourselves, we cannot help but consider our free will to be independent.
1643-1649
The practical intellect is compared to artificial things, as the measure to the thing measured; conversely, the speculative intellect is compared to the things it conceives as the thing measured to the measure.
c. 1270
Horseman
4th–3rd century BCE
There is nothing more comfortable than not thinking.
1940
What is, can appear.
1764
The more the merchant provinces need sustenance, the more they demand from the agricultural provinces; and, consequently, they make agriculture flourish there.
1776
[...] all bodies have a reluctance to separate from one another.
1653-1662
Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara
early 1480s
All legally practical principles must contain rigorous truths, and [...] they can never admit of exceptions, for these would destroy the universality to which alone they owe their name as principles.
1797
Such strange and barbarous customs are not at all suitable for an intelligent and civilized people [...] they revolt human nature...
1751
It is therefore evident that in a finite portion of matter or in a finite mind, one cannot find enough reality to see the infinite.
1707
A man is best portrayed in his career, in his works, and in his words.
1896
Portrait of a Man, Said to Be John Durham
ca. 1790
Culture proper [...] can only be given to a few, and can be received by an even smaller number.
1819
We will fall back if we do not persist in moving from effort to effort; if our zeal [...] weakens in the slightest, we must retreat.
63-64 AD
In what was believed [...] to be a simple idea, a single perception, there are many distinct parts; and [...] many different intellectual operations were necessary to assemble these parts.
1805
[The clement one] seems to have conquered victory itself, by restoring to the vanquished the rights it had acquired over them.
46 BC
Marble statue head of a youth
1st or 2nd century CE
The man of genius knows he is taking a chance, and he knows it without having calculated the odds for or against.
c. 1763
The single individual, who derives them through tradition and education, may imagine that they form the real motives and the starting-point of his activity.
1851/1852
It is much more important to know if a [project] is advantageous than to know its author well.
1743
[...] the beautiful cathedrals were built by a singing and dancing people, happy to satisfy their sensibility, drunk with the work that so fully contented it.
1926
Statuette of Herakles
3rd century BCE–2nd century CE