I have lost my friends; the hour has come to seek those I have lost!
1883-1885
The vision we ordinarily have of objects [...] is but a vision that our attachment to reality, our need to live and to act, has led us to narrow and to empty.
1934
Individuals can only be subject to a collective despotism; for the members of a society can only be dominated by a force superior to them, and there is only one that has this quality: that of the group.
1893
When a thing cannot fail to be, it is not necessary, in order to accept it, to ask what purpose it can serve.
1695
Terracotta plaque
27 BCE–68 CE
Indeed, this proposition, that a space is empty, [...] not only repulses common sense, but also manifestly contradicts itself.
1653-1662
When one compares virtue to riches with the clear sight of the mind, one prefers virtue; but when one uses one's imagination [...] one undoubtedly prefers riches to virtue.
1674-1675
Stop trying to forcibly introduce your artificial virtues that are contrary to nature.
4th century BC
Gentleness all the more ensures their [the kings'] security. [...] the will to punish must cease before the reasons for it do.
55-56 AD
Marble female figure
4500–4000 BCE
It is absolutely necessary that they be brought back or tormented.
1762
It is better to derogate from one's station than from one's genius.
1746
When you have closed your door [...], remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not.
c. 108 AD
Royalty [...] is maintained by moderation. The less extensive its sovereign powers, the more chance it has of lasting in its entirety.
c. 350 BCE
Raising the Wind
1812
The source of inspiration remains forever hidden from us [...]. Logic loses its rights, and if a necessity drives genius to produce, the law of that necessity remains within itself.
1896
There was hardly anyone who did not have their horoscope drawn. [...] One heard only of magic secrets; almost everything was illusion.
1751
Nothing is included in the nature of each thing except what necessarily results from the cause that produces it.
1661-1676
An exact balance between the revenues and expenditures of the State. As long as it does not exist, no order is possible in society.
1797-1798
Limestone horse with a rider
middle or 3rd quarter of the 6th century BCE
These words should not be understood in the sense that the whole expanse of the world would not be enough to contain all these books, but that the capacity of the readers of the whole world would not be enough to comprehend them.
1263-1264
Whoever considers the errors, the confusion [...] and the darkness that the misuse of Words has spread in the World, will find some reason to doubt whether Language [...] has contributed more to advance or to interrupt the knowledge of Truth.
1689
This is the beginning of the first Olympian ode by Pindar.
c. 1552-1553
When I experience a great pleasure, I cannot help but wish for all those I love to enjoy it.
1759-1774
Silver bust of Serapis
2nd century CE
In short: the business of the senses is to perceive; that of the understanding, to think. Now, to think is to unite representations in a single consciousness.
1783
In aristocracies, [readers] prefer to be amused rather than keenly moved; they want to be interested, but not to be carried away.
1835-1840
Men [...] are inclined to esteem themselves rather above than below their worth, and that is why it is so easy to hurt us by carrying self-esteem too far.
1751
You are going astray, this is the way to go.
1636
The Outer Harbor of Brest
1773
The absence of discussion causes not only the grounds to be forgotten, but too often the very meaning of the opinion itself. [...] Instead of a strong conception and a living belief, only a few phrases learned by rote remain.
1859
A man must be judged by himself, not by his adornments.
1580
If we examine the virtues that Christianity recommends, we will see that they are ill-suited for man, that they raise him above his sphere, that they are useless to society, and that they are often of the most dangerous consequence for it.
1766
The Assembly [...] with its majority of representatives of the middle-class interest, had long since forfeited all public esteem by lending itself to all the intrigues of the Court, from fear of the more energetic elements of the population.
1851-1852
The Muse: History
ca. 1865
Perhaps [...] it is out of benevolence that God grants me [...] the ability to end my life not only at the most suitable time, but also in the least painful way.
4th century BC
This doctrine [...] of the necessary revolution which carries souls out of the world and brings them back again is an error.
c. 253-270 AD
If one has a criterion for good other than the good itself, one loses the notion of the good.
1940
I did not think I should stay when the republic itself [...] was banished; and it brought me back with it as soon as it saw itself recalled.
September 57 BC
Madonna and Child
1307
What is space, this omnipresent nothingness outside of which nothing can exist without ceasing to be?
1819
The homage paid to virtue is fleeting; the homage paid to strength is eternal.
1772
One has no reason to fear what one does not know.
1643-1649
He who deceives by perjury declares that he fears his enemy and despises the divinity.
100-120 AD
A Peasant Woman Picking Fleas off a Dog
ca. 1626–27
To seek the material earth and sky in the divine word [...] is to seek among eternal things that which is but fleeting.
1623
To speak of woman as an abstraction is absurd. Man is not an abstraction either; but he can live in abstraction, and this is impossible for woman.
1926
A corrupt people who regain their liberty can maintain it only with the greatest difficulty.
1855
This interest is sufficient to give rise to the operations of the understanding and the will.
1754
Bronze shield boss
8th–7th century BCE