If, by freely stating [...] the opinion I have of myself, I am to offend the judges, I would rather die.
4th century BC
In man, the most elevated thing is a vast and luminous intelligence, the principle of his best-conducted operations [...].
1636
Time is a sure witness to modesty, love, and constancy [...].
100-120 AD
To more surely increase this common treasure of humanity, it is good to know what it contains.
c. 350 BC
Marble stele (grave marker) of a woman
ca. 375–350 BCE
Pulverize jade and pearls, and there will be no more thieves. Burn the contracts, break the seals, and men will become honest again.
4th century BC
Yet [the astrologers] were neither discouraged nor neglected: almost all princes continued to consult them.
1764
I find it harsh, dry, full of temper, and poor in ideas.
1741-1784
Mystics are unanimous in testifying that God needs us, just as we need God. Why would He need us, if not to love us?
1932
Limestone horse with a rider
middle or 3rd quarter of the 6th century BCE
The mind necessary to grasp known truths is therefore sufficient to reach unknown ones.
1772
It seems to me quite rare to see the proverb verified in marriages: God makes people, and they pair up.
1518
To believe in Jesus Christ is, therefore, to love Him in believing, to unite faith with love, to unite oneself to Him through faith and become part of the body of which He is the head.
1263-1264
[...] the qualities that constitute the essence of the body.
c. 253-270 AD
Entrance to a Village
ca. 1665
A being, fundamentally, is that which represents itself, and which is represented by itself, but whose existence in itself is neither in the act of representation nor in the quality of a represented object.
1819
Everything passes, and everything dies out; the elapsed centuries will be lost endlessly in an eternal abyss upon the accumulated centuries.
1926
Manners spoil more easily than they are corrected.
1746
To become what one is, one must not have the slightest notion of what one is.
1888
Olivier Journu (1724–1783)
1756
It is useful in a State that there be many accusers, so that audacity may be contained by fear; but they must not openly make a mockery of the public.
79 BC
It is upon [its] happy return that love breathes [...] a dormant and covered fire that winter concealed within our veins.
1546/1563
One has only understood [a] truth [...] when one has recognized it to be true for oneself.
1934
The greatest souls are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
1637
Eye Miniature
1800
Scripture does not deal with philosophical matters, it teaches only piety, and [...] has been adapted to the understanding and prejudices of the people.
1670
Can he be called honest [...] who would gladly indulge in vice if he did not fear future punishment [...]?
1766
There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.
1580
The artisan, on the contrary, produces value, since there is value in the forms he gives to raw materials.
1776
Saint Stephen (with the Angel of the Annunciation)
1389
True tolerance and freedom of thought are the true antidotes to religious fanaticism.
1766
What distinguishes the restitutive sanction is that it is not expiatory, but amounts to a simple restoration of the state of affairs.
1893
'Our sympathies go to the vanquished hero, not the victorious one'.
1896
We can [...] place cleanliness among the virtues [...] it makes us agreeable to others & serves to win their friendship & goodwill.
1751
Two Women Embracing
1913
Better an end with horror than a horror without end.
1851/1852
It is good that several people apply themselves to anatomy, since it is extremely useful to know it, and the knowledge to which we should aspire is that which is most useful to us.
1674-1675
There are two kinds of dependence: that on things, which is from nature; that on men, which is from society. Dependence on things [...] does not harm freedom, and does not breed vices.
1762
The Soul has different Tastes as well as the Palate; and [...] to pretend to make all Men love glory or riches [...] [is] as useless as [...] wanting to satisfy the taste of all men by giving them cheese or oysters.
1689
Terracotta statuette of a veiled woman
2nd century BCE
To seek the material earth and sky in the divine word [...] is to seek among eternal things that which is but fleeting.
1623
One transfers admiration from the work to the inventor, just as when we now see that the planets do not need to be guided by intelligences.
1702
As for living enough, neither years nor days have anything to do with it; what matters here is the soul.
63-64 AD
It is the judicial power which is mainly destined, in democracies, to be at once the barrier and the safeguard of the people.
1864-1866
Portrait of a Man
1795
We cannot expect women to devote themselves to the emancipation of their sex, as long as men [...] are not prepared to join them in undertaking it.
1869
One day in the month of October 1654.
1643-1662
What then is the material of the philosopher? His cloak? No, his reason. And what is his goal? [...] To have a sound reason.
c. 108 AD
If any innovator has ever had prompt success, it is because he has only declared [...] opinions that were already simmering in every mind.
1805
Bronze statuette of a sphinx
ca. 1st century BCE–2nd century CE