The desire to acquire is doubtless a common and natural thing; but to form the intention of doing so without the ability to carry it out is to incur blame and commit an error.
1513
The relationship of superior to subordinate is the nursery of these character flaws.
1869
You are going astray, this is the way to go.
1636
[...] it is supposed that this natural union could not be approved by heaven if the ceremonies of a priest did not render it valid.
1766
Terracotta statuette of a woman
3rd century BCE
The course of an individual's life, however complicated it may appear, forms an orderly whole, having its determined tendency and its meaningful significance, just like the most carefully composed epic.
1836
A strong and well-constituted man digests his experiences (deeds and misdeeds included) as he digests his meals, even when he has had to swallow tough morsels.
1887
The contradictions that the mind comes up against are the only realities, the criterion of the real. [...] Contradiction is the test of necessity.
1947
The first days of spring have less grace than the nascent virtue of a young man.
1746
Girl in a Sailor's Blouse
1918
Of all punishments, deportation is the only one which, without being cruel, nevertheless frees society from the presence of the guilty.
1864-1866
Suppose that instead of seeking to rise above our perception of things, we were to plunge into it in order to deepen and broaden it.
1911
When you have closed your door [...], remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not.
c. 108 AD
It is [...] for the first time that truth, reassured by the equity of the judges, raises its voice against slander.
66 BC
Faience statuette of Aphrodite
334–30 BCE
What motive would one have to extol an action, a character, if one agrees at the same time that these things are good for nothing?
1751
[The government] would avoid all [...] losses if it conformed to the price of the common market.
1776
Poetry consists in imitation.
c. 335 BC
Few meals pass where you are not presented with sugared almonds & boxes of jams; the most excellent bread possible.
1774
Portrait of a Man
1827
[It can happen] that the coachmen refuse to stop to pick up [passengers] on the route, even though there are still empty seats...
1662
[A man] brought neither his eyes nor his hand near those treasures of which he made such great largesses to others.
100-120 AD
Everyone wants to command, because everyone would like to increase their own felicity.
1772
A confused violence disturbs the calm of the night, and the light with the noise dispels the shadow and the silence.
1926
Mrs. Vanderbank
ca. 1730
It is clear that the more often we have made the same judgment, the more easily and quickly we make it, [and] the less it strikes us.
1801
The value and use of each part depends on the relation [...] to all the rest within reason itself, and, as in an organized body, the purpose of each member can only be deduced from the perfect concept of the whole.
1783
When one is no longer sensitive to small faults, one is less so to large ones.
1893
[...] praise the goodness of kings [...] and the submission of their subjects.
c. 1552-1553
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1520–25
The soul of man is, so to speak, a determined quantity or a portion of thought that has limits it cannot exceed.
1674-1675
In a democratic government, all those who [...] were born on the very soil of the fatherland, or who have deserved well of the republic [...] have the right to vote [...], and it cannot be refused to them, except for reason of crime or infamy.
1677
What is not good is to abandon the Creator to live according to the created good, whether one wants to live according to the flesh, or according to the soul, or according to the whole man.
c. 253-270 AD
Everyone abandoned the idea of refusing taxes to please a defunct assembly that had not even had the courage to defend itself.
1851-1852
Upper right corner of a marble sarcophagus: head of a Black African and a maenad
1st quarter of the 3rd century CE
What [animals] do better than us does not prove that they have a mind [...]; but rather that they have none, and that it is nature which acts in them according to the disposition of their organs.
1637
It has been said of them [the editors] that they live off the foolishness of the dead; and this is all too true.
1760
If we are so little instructed about the Powers & Operations of Bodies, [...] we are in greater darkness with regard to Spirits.
1689
The entire universe could present itself and grace would not be exhausted [...] the multitude of those who partake in the grace of the Holy Spirit in no way diminishes its divine efficacy.
1263-1264
A Man and a Woman on Horseback
ca. 1653–54
The love of well-being is the sole motive of human actions.
1755
In Germany, democracy is a being of pure translation.
1896
It is to repel people unnecessarily to act in this manner, so that he may henceforth proceed with a little more moderation.
1686
He lets all beings evolve according to their destinies, and stands, himself, at the still center of all destinies.
4th century BC
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1795
The making of sentient and acting beings delights me.
1769
[It is the sophism of those] who believe they can explain diverse phenomena by assimilating them to those with which they have been most occupied.
1623
I am sure that the future [...] will bear me this testimony, that I have never wronged anyone, nor ever made anyone more vicious.
4th century BC
Before I was old, I thought of living well, and in my old age, of dying well.
63-64 AD
Chlorite pestle
ca. 1600–1050 BCE