A general proposition can never be the real cause of the truth of a particular proposition.
1805
It is not enough for man to be fit for all sorts of ends; he must also make it his maxim to choose only good ones.
1797-1798
It is ignorance which, even more barbarous than interest, has poured the most calamities upon the earth.
1758
God as a moral being or law.
1841
Bronze handle of a hydria (water jar)
4th century BCE
there is always some evil so closely linked to the good that it seems impossible to enjoy one without suffering the drawbacks of the other.
1855
The great business of mankind consists in action, and it is to action that all that is the subject of laws relates.
1689
Generally speaking, the psychological state seems to us, in most cases, to extend far beyond the cerebral state.
1896
Although two things may be perfectly similar, they do not cease to be two things.
1715-1716
Box, inscribed
3900 BCE - 100 CE
There is nothing so contrary to my style as a lengthy narrative. I cut myself off so often, for want of breath.
1580
Everything that exists necessarily has a positive cause through which it exists.
1661-1676
I am poor, but I have a just opinion of poverty; what does it matter to me then that I am pitied for my poverty!
c. 108 AD
It is these results of our practice that we would like to present here in their entirety and submit for discussion.
1895
A City on a Rock
1800
Where vice reigns so imperiously, it cannot be overstated, let us not believe that peace of mind and pleasure can dwell.
1746
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
The complete subordination of the worker to the enterprise [...] rests on the structure of the factory and not on the system of ownership.
1934
What, indeed, is more fortunate than to be able [...] to converse with the most eloquent characters, with the best people who ever lived?
45 BC
Copper alloy spearhead
ca. 2500–2000 BCE
Man is extremely subject to error; the illusions of his senses, the visions of his imagination, and the abstractions of his mind deceive him at every moment.
1674-1675
Even while giving it a moderate length, [one can make] a war that is too crowded with varied incidents.
c. 335 BC
Only thoughts that come to you while walking are of any value.
1888
He who blames the whole of the world by considering only its parts is therefore unjust; he should examine the parts in their relation to the whole, to see if they are in accord and in harmony with it.
c. 253-270 AD
Chlorite pestle
ca. 1600–1050 BCE
The world would be destroyed in the blink of an eye if God withdrew His regulating action from it.
1263-1264
Everything changes, nothing perishes.
1623
It is shameful to be a people-pleaser to acquire power; but an authority based on terror, violence, and oppression is both a shame and an injustice.
100-120 AD
This multiplication of ideas only produces obscurity, and serves only to make one lose sight of the main object.
1636
Garden of the Painter at Saint Clair
1908
The whole mind is in action in the application of thought to an object.
17th century
Truth is simple and clear; the marvelous always announces falsehood.
1766
Goodness finds a thousand obstacles in large cities, where there is always a multitude of men interested in perpetuating evil.
1759-1774
As if it were not better to live a novel than to write one, as if, after all, to write a good novel, one did not first have to live it!
1926
Bronze statuette of Minerva
2nd century CE
The feeling fades in the end; but the sensitive soul always remains.
1761
Nothing allows us to say whether [one] was made based on [the other], or vice versa.
1643-1662
April, the grace, and the smile [...], the scent and the sweet breath.
1546/1563
The 'tyranny of the majority' is now generally included among the evils against which society is required to be on its guard.
1859
Portrait of a Child
1790
If a province believes itself richer because it has more money, it is [...] under an illusion.
1776
Let us never judge a man's morals by the fervor of his zeal [...]. The most enormous crimes are, on the contrary, very apt to give birth to religious terror, and to increase superstition.
1757
[It is] a liberty acquired by natural law, which is older than all human laws.
1766
The American crisis came and [...] wages, taken as a whole, were suddenly reduced to about a quarter of their previous amount. Did the price of wheat fall? No, it rose.
1865
Bronze statuette of a camillus (attendant)
ca. 50 BCE–50 CE
The public [...] does not persuade its beliefs, it imposes them and makes them penetrate souls by a sort of immense pressure of the mind of all on the intelligence of each.
1835-1840
Every physical explanation [...] needs a metaphysical explanation that gives it the key to all its assumptions.
1819
Do you not see that the courts [...], offended by a defense, have often put innocent men to death, and often acquitted the guilty whose words had moved their pity or flattered their ears?
4th century BC
Consider how sweet it is to ask for nothing, how beautiful it is to say: 'I have enough'.
63-64 AD
Man with a Celestial Globe
1624