[Speech is forbidden] for fear that their favorites who abuse their power might thereby be known and punished.
1574
No truth is [...] more certain, more absolute, more evident than this: all that exists, exists for thought.
1819
[...] there are [...] two Kingdoms in corporeal nature [...] that penetrate each other without confusion [...]: the kingdom of power, according to which everything can be explained mechanically [...] and also the Kingdom of wisdom, according to which everything can be explained [...] by final causes.
1697
Everything through our sensations and nothing without them, that is our story.
1817
The Two Sisters
1770
That creature, [...] who does not seem capable of swatting a fly, killed men as easily as a dog swallows a morsel.
c. 54 AD
Sorrow begets joy, [...] this sorrow will be short, while [the] joy will have no end.
1263-1264
By this means [man] no more increases his knowledge than he increases his riches who, taking a bag of counters [...] names one a Crown, another a Pound [...] without however being richer by a mite.
1689
[...] you seek happiness and tranquility, not where they are, but where they are not [...].
c. 108 AD
A Brazilian Landscape
1650
Misfortune is only relieved by a miracle.
1957
Often the things one has most feared before knowing them turn out to be better than those one has desired.
1643-1649
For such men to bend their principles, violent suspicions must undoubtedly have suddenly seized their minds.
66 BC
It seems [...] more in conformity with human nature to base the expectation of another life on the sentiments of a well-ordered soul, than to base one's conduct on the hope of another life.
1766
The Madonna of Humility, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Pietà
ca. 1465
In such a government, affairs are conducted much more poorly, because the election [...] depends on the completely free will of a few individuals [...] exempt from all law.
1677
The perfect woman is a higher type of humanity than the perfect man: she is also something rarer.
1926
The operations which by previous methods are laborious, complex, long, and uncertain, become easy, simple, prompt, and assured.
1642-1645
Instead of the apotheosis of Reason, we have made another of Instinct; and we call everything instinct which we cannot establish on a rational basis.
1869
Marble grave relief with two portrait busts
ca. 13 BCE–5 CE
While man delights in this [...] pursuit of well-being, it is to be feared that he may finally lose the use of his most sublime faculties, and that in wanting to improve everything around him, he may finally degrade himself.
1835-1840
Between different consciousnesses, exchanges comparable to the phenomena of endosmosis could be taking place at every moment.
1919
Man neither wants nor knows how to obey. From childhood, he contracts this lack of discipline [...]. On the other hand, extreme poverty is no less degrading. Thus, poverty prevents one from knowing how to command, and it only teaches one to obey as a slave.
c. 350 BCE
Through freedom of trade, [the provinces] are all at the same time both agricultural and merchant. This is because, in each, all activities are pursued, and none knows exclusive preferences.
1776
L'Arlésienne: Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux (Marie Julien, 1848–1911)
1888–89
If we examine the virtues that Christianity recommends, we will see that they are ill-suited for man, that they raise him above his sphere, that they are useless to society, and that they are often of the most dangerous consequence for it.
1766
Of what was Apelles's Venus composed? Of the beauties scattered across the bodies of the most beautiful girls of Greece.
1772
Since we are born mortal, we must bear misfortune and try fortune again: let us not despair of returning from my present state to my past greatness.
100-120 AD
Virtue or personal merit consists in the possession of qualities of the soul which are useful or agreeable, either to the person who possesses them, or to others.
1751
Statuette of a runner
7000 BCE - 30 BCE
Cruelties should be committed all at once, so that their bitterness being less felt, they will excite less resentment; benefits, on the contrary, ought to be conferred gradually, that they may be savored the more.
1855
Every animal, the philosophical beast like any other, strives instinctively for an optimum of favorable conditions under which it can fully release its power and achieve its maximum feeling of power.
1887
It is by doing good that one becomes good; I know of no surer practice.
1762
The union of the mind with the body infinitely debases man; and it is today the principal cause of all his errors and all his miseries.
1674-1675
Terracotta statuette of a woman
3rd century BCE
Preoccupied with learning what they do not know [...], men unlearn what they know (the natural truths of common sense).
4th century BC
Manners spoil more easily than they are corrected.
1746
All things have sympathy for one another through their irrational life.
c. 253-270 AD
One genius and the other vied for victory. But one appeared, and the other's glory was eclipsed in a moment.
1718-1778
Pendant in the form of a fish
3900 BCE - 100 CE
A quick mind is [...] like the salt and the charm of all beautiful qualities; and with regard to great perfections, it is like their brilliance.
1636
The history of the elections proves irrefutably that in proportion as the actual power of the bourgeoisie developed, its moral power over the masses of the people was lost.
1851/1852
Competition between two organisms is all the more keen the more alike they are. Having the same needs and pursuing the same objects, they find themselves everywhere in rivalry.
1893
They inquire about your successes, and one sees that the answer one gives them is not at all the one they expect.
1765-1769
Terracotta statuette of an actor
late 5th–early 4th century BCE
The word of man is divine, in other words: it is an immense and incommensurable power like thought, of which it is the invisible body.
1841
All very ancient events are uncertain, and it is not without danger that one writes the history of more modern times.
1623
If, by freely stating [...] the opinion I have of myself, I am to offend the judges, I would rather die.
4th century BC
There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.
1580
Marble two-sided relief
1st century CE