Insults and disgrace are much more deeply felt than praise and applause [...].
1674-1675
[...] all bodies have a reluctance to separate from one another.
1653-1662
I have never lived, since I have not governed.
1968
This principle of nature to act by the most determined ways [...] is, in effect, only architectonic, yet it never fails to observe it.
1697
Steamboats in the Port of Rouen
1896
Malicious critics, I despise you all, for I know my own flaws better than you do.
ca. 1730
Does not the adage say: chiseling and polishing are not as good as letting nature act. [...] I let people do as they would, spontaneously, as nature operates.
4th century BC
[...] we can never, with all our reason, go beyond the field of experience.
1783
[Situation] does not admit of contrariety.
c. 1270
The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara
ca. 1510
Be careful he does not deceive you; these parasites are not accustomed to acting in good faith.
1518
The stars do not produce [...] poverty and wealth, health and sickness, beauty and ugliness, vices and virtues.
c. 253-270 AD
It is claimed that [the epic] is addressed to people of sound judgment, [...] while tragedy is addressed to spectators of inferior taste.
c. 335 BC
[...] the love of plunder, the spirit of vengeance overriding respect for [...] authority and the observance of military discipline.
1580
View of Haarlem and the Haarlemmer Meer
1646
The continual contradictions in the world caused by pride [...] have forced the introduction of the rules of propriety or politeness, in order to facilitate the commerce of the mind and of conversation.
1751
It is hoped that this work [...] will merit above all the approval of the Clergy, who will find all their rights established therein on an unshakeable basis.
1768
Without music, life would be a mistake.
1888
From the moment I began to understand human language, I have never ceased to seek and to learn all the good I could.
4th century BC
The Nativity
ca. 1433–34
[...] citizens, despairing of improving their lot by themselves, rush tumultuously towards the head of state and ask for his help.
1835-1840
Our character is still us [...].
1889
What is the most necessary discipline? It is to unlearn the bad things.
1909
What is presumption in the weak, is elevation in the strong.
1746
Charles de Saint-Radegonde, called Charles Coguin, Abbot of Anchin
ca. 1511–20
One must save the sharpness and brilliance of the mind for subjects that deserve it, just as the lion reserves its efforts for dangers worthy of it.
1636
A composition [...] will be flawed if it is not intelligible to a person of plain common sense.
1766
A great man fears infamy alone, and that suffering only frightens [...] men with the hearts of women.
1st Century A.D.
The essences of things are of all eternity and will remain immutable for all eternity.
c. 1660
Eye Miniature
1800
[God] has given you these faculties free, independent, and liberated from all external constraint; he has put them entirely at your disposal.
c. 108 AD
Instead of that speculative philosophy [...], one can find a practical one, by which [...] we might [...] make ourselves, as it were, the masters and possessors of nature.
1637
The spirit of conversation is reduced [...] to the talent of speaking ill of others agreeably.
1758
All the rest is not life, but merely time.
c. 49 AD
Bronze statuette of a goddess
1st–2nd century CE
the Assembly, adopting the convenient principle: 'Measures, not men,' allowed itself to be duped [...] without having eyes to see the concentration and organization of counter-revolutionary forces.
1851-1852
This act of judging consists in seeing that the idea I have of one thing belongs to the idea I have of another.
1817
When a man is dead, one should not call a doctor.
1750
One will only find pleasantries in women when one only looks for women in them.
1926
The Nymph of Fontainebleau
1550
The social state is at once so natural, so necessary, and so habitual to man [...] that he never conceives himself otherwise than as a member of a body.
1861
Perception is the first Faculty of the Soul that is occupied with our Ideas. It is also the first and simplest idea that we receive by means of Reflection.
1689
For the scientist, the causal relationship is not in question; it is presupposed by the very method of science.
1895
While we see the [ancients] make such good use of sad leisure [...] putting their consolation in the precepts of philosophy: how are we not ashamed of our vain conversations [...]?
45 BC
Limestone lower left leg
4th or 3rd century BCE ?
Books and learning give to men, more than anything else, the sense and understanding to know themselves and to hate tyranny.
c. 1552-1553
'Condensation is the proper work of the creative intelligence'.
1896
The works of wisdom surpass those of valor in the importance, extent, and duration of their effects.
1620
One should not, in order to populate some provinces more and enrich them, turn others into deserts, or leave behind only a miserable people.
1776
Christ among the Doctors
1668