It is so, because it is so; it is not so, because it is not so.
4th century BC
Therefore, one must not believe men because men have spoken, for every man is a deceiver.
1674-1675
We can [...] place cleanliness among the virtues [...] it makes us agreeable to others & serves to win their friendship & goodwill.
1751
For us, there exist only two kinds of evidence: that of feeling and that of deduction.
1817
Statuette of a youth
6th century BCE
The ravages of age, which gradually consume intellectual forces, do not affect moral qualities.
1819
The devils themselves [...] preferred to return to burn in hell than to live in this world under the orders of such a woman.
1518-1527
To be truly clever, one must avoid appearing so and sometimes even seem a fool.
1609
A free judgment offends the ears of the great.
1574
Frescoes from the Villa Stati-Mattei
1501
The conquests of Mexico and Peru are prodigies of audacity; the cruelties exercised there [...] are excesses of horror.
1756
Should we be surprised, then, to find so few virtuous men, so few men instructed in their duties to society?
1772
However, we have an instinct, since we have habits, and it is the most extensive of all.
1755
Fortune sometimes lies in wait for the last day of our life to show its power to overthrow in a moment what it had built over many years.
1580
Strainer
10th century BCE
There is no ferocious animal more cruel than man when he has the power to satisfy his passion.
100-120 AD
One should judge people by their deeds rather than their words.
c. 380 BC
[Objection:] That this proposition, that a space is empty, is repugnant to common sense.
1647
[Situation] does not admit of contrariety.
c. 1270
Lady Mary Berkeley
ca. 1700
I held him capable of anything, except acting cowardly or speaking in a vulgar way.
1893
You will have complete freedom to philosophize, the prince being convinced that you will not abuse it to disturb the established religion.
1661-1676
After having based all his physics on motion, [Descartes] seemingly ruins it by positing motion as purely relative.
17th century
The darkening of the sky over man has always increased in proportion to the shame man has felt at the sight of man.
1887
Bronze statuette of an actor
ca. 1st–2nd century CE
The only thing one could give him was love, 'that homeland of his art,' as he himself calls it.
1896
The wicked rule only through the cowardice of those who obey them: it is more just that it be so than otherwise.
c. 253-270 AD
The apparent decline of memory, as intelligence develops, is due [...] to the growing organization of memories with actions.
1896
In all the work of [...] Spencer, the methodological problem has no place.
1895
Figures on the Beach
1890
If one must be just to others, one must be true to oneself; it is a homage that the honest man owes to his own dignity.
1776-1778
An injury is aggravated by memory beyond its effect at the moment it is experienced; we persuade ourselves that we were not angry enough, and we become too angry.
1774
Solitude is to the mind what diet is to the body: deadly when it is too long, although necessary.
1746
Show that you are superior to me in [honesty, loyalty, justice], if you want to be superior to me as a man.
c. 108 AD
Wall painting fragment
1st century CE
Diagoras the Atheist. [...] the Athenians put a price on his head.
45 BC
The king [...] very quickly saw that he was just as necessary to these 'liberal' ministers as they were indispensable to him.
1851-1852
Some are born virtuous, it is true; but care, reflection, and effort can give to others what nature has denied them.
1636
What the evening is to the day, old age is to life. One will therefore say: 'the evening, old age of the day,' and 'old age, evening of life'.
c. 335 BC
The Garter
1724
It is the decree of fate that nothing should be constantly prosperous and standing in the same place.
42-43 AD
Space, taken as something real and absolute without bodies, would be an eternal, impassible thing, independent of God.
1715-1716
It is with a very painful reflection [...] that I realize I have lost some of my sensitivity.
1926
Great thieves punish the small ones to keep people in obedience; and [...] are rewarded with laurels and triumphs, because they are too powerful [...] for the weak hands of justice.
1690
Lower right corner of a marble sarcophagus, illustrating the discovery of Achilles by Odysseus on the island of Skyros
ca. 160–180 CE
There is scarcely any absurdity or mischief which may not be made to act on the human mind with all the authority of conscience.
1861
All industry is equally forbidden to perfect Christians, who lead a provisional life on earth, and who must never worry about the morrow.
1766
I can defile the entire universe with my misery and not feel it, or gather it within myself.
1947
The adverse fate that always attaches itself to metaphysics willed that Hume was understood by no one.
1783
Statue of a man
6th century BCE or later