The fear shown by the new ministers in the face of the rebellious masses was such that any means seemed good to them, as long as it served to consolidate the shaken foundations of authority!
1851-1852
Love breathes [...] a dormant and covered fire that winter had concealed within our veins.
1546/1563
It is impossible that a feeling foreign and contradictory to human nature [...] could have, at all times, been tirelessly described by the genius of poets and could have excited in all men an unalterable sympathy.
1819
We are irritated by those who respond with irony when spoken to seriously, for irony is a form of contempt.
329-323 BC
Peacocks
1683
The social subordination of women stands out as an isolated fact in the midst of modern social institutions; it is the only relic of an old intellectual and moral world destroyed everywhere else [...].
1869
[It can happen] that the coachmen refuse to stop to pick up [passengers] on the route, even though there are still empty seats...
1662
[The cultivation of land] is a source that does not run dry. The more one draws from it, the more it grows. Such is the advantage of exploiting the land over exploiting mines.
1776
A good [leader] never has weapons that are too short; what they lack in length, their bravery knows how to supplement.
1636
Dancers, Pink and Green
ca. 1890
One can only think and write while sitting.
1888
Either he is well, or he is sick; but he is not sick, therefore he is well.
c. 1270
To act to please the world, [...] to study to be admired, to teach to get rich, to dress up in a disguise of goodness and equity [...] these are things I will never bring myself to do.
4th century BC
There is no one who does not desire to live in security and sheltered from fear, as much as possible; yet this situation is impossible as long as everyone can do everything as they please.
1670
Terracotta antefix (roof tile) with head of a satyr
4th century BCE
Who then could you reasonably consider more just than a man who has adapted to his present fortune, to the point of never needing what belongs to others?
4th century BC
Virtue would not go far, if vanity did not keep it company.
1674-1675
What does it matter to you by which road you descend into the underworld? They are all of equal worth.
c. 108 AD
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
Limestone cippus of Philon
ca. 2nd–3rd century CE
The more we are preoccupied with living, the less we are inclined to look, and [...] the necessities of action tend to limit the field of vision.
1911
It is by faith that Enoch was taken up, so that he should not see death; and he was no longer seen, because the Lord had transported him.
1764
Whether it be men, duty, or even necessity that commands, when my heart is silent, my will remains deaf, and I cannot obey.
1776-1778
Besides, if he wanted to live as an honest man, he would have to do two things equally difficult at his age: learn much and forget much.
81 BC
Leda and the Swan, after Boucher
1800
[The Devil] is the lynchpin of the Church. God could with a single word plunge him back into nothingness, but He is careful not to, He needs him too much, to blame on him all the foolishness of which He could be accused.
1768
Wisdom knows how to effortlessly bring together all conditions and all ages [...].
1746
Woman, even in extreme civilization, is always much more natural than man, much closer to life, more physical, in a word.
1926
Happiness consists in rest and in pleasure, it is a state of ease and contentment: happiness flees from vigils; it abhors cares and fatigues.
1742
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1640
A duty can be contained and moderated by another duty, but not by purely economic necessities.
1893
[The language of animals] is entirely composed of propositions, of statements of judgments, and it never contains simple names of ideas.
1803
This irreducible 'I' which is the irreducible foundation of my suffering, to make it universal.
1947
Such thoughts leave no room in the soul for any sordid, base, or cruel inclination.
63-64 AD
Bronze helmet attachment
late 6th century BCE
It has always been very risky [...] to allow soldiers entry as soon as the surrender is obtained.
1580
To try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world.
1637
Man is upright or virtuous when, without any base and servile motive [...], he compels all his passions to conspire for the general good of his species.
1745
The Roman Empire [...] turned its arms against itself, less because of the ambition of its leaders [...] than because of the avarice and licentiousness of the soldiers, who drove them out one after another, as one nail drives out another.
100-120 AD
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1780
If the best way to avoid the plague is to have joy, the mere presence of my lover is enough to make it bloom in my heart.
1527
The Christian heaven or personal immortality.
1841
How can one apply this calculus to conjectural matters? I answer that it is as Messrs. Pascal, Huygens, and others have given demonstrations concerning chance (alea).
1686
The most skilled people are the least decisive.
1689
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
1530
The same cause that makes a child a screamer at three makes him rebellious at twelve, quarrelsome at twenty, imperious at thirty, and unbearable his whole life.
1772
The river Lethe is this union with the body that makes the soul forget its true nature.
c. 253-270 AD
[In a time of transition,] obedience loses its morality in the eyes of the one who obeys; [...] he submits to it as a degrading and useful fact.
1835-1840
Civil history [...] by its importance and authority, holds the first rank among human writings.
1623
Buckle
3900 BCE - 100 CE