These same passions, which must be regarded as the seed of an infinity of errors, are also the source of our enlightenment. If they lead us astray, they alone give us the necessary strength to move forward.
1758
In the handling of affairs, there are no teachings so good or certain as those given by experience. [...] The experience one gains on oneself teaches more and imprints better.
c. 1552-1553
Minds have degenerated [...] just as the Turkish government has depressed the Greeks, and brutalized the Egyptians. [...] in all countries, the human spirit finds obstacles to its progress.
1756
...perfect health [...] is the foundation of all other goods one can have in this life.
1643-1649
The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda)
ca. 1772
Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth [...], and in no other way can a human being have the rational assurance of being right.
1859
What is this glory that swells your hearts [...]? An echo, a shadow, a dream, the shadow of a dream.
1742
In our souls, although there are diverse movements that stir it, there must be one that holds the field.
1580
It is almost ridiculous, when every other science is constantly progressing, to be always turning in the same spot in metaphysics, which nevertheless wants to be wisdom itself [...] and to make not the slightest progress.
1783
Standing female figurine
ca. 600–480 BCE
What are desire and joy, if not a will that consents to what pleases us? And what are fear and sadness, if not a will that turns away from what displeases us?
c. 253-270 AD
[The trade of priests] consists in distributing fears for free in order to have the pleasure of then distributing hopes for money.
1768
The number of volumes in a work depends on the length of the manuscript, [...] on the subject and the way it is treated, all things that concern only the author.
1741-1784
Only truth and evidence can stop the agitation of the mind [...]. Lies and error can only divide and agitate [minds].
1674-1675
Virgin and Child
ca. 1520
To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.
1762
Intelligence seems to be another kind of soul, and the only one that can be isolated from the rest, as the eternal is isolated from the perishable.
384–322 BC
Since I have been restored to the republic with the republic, far from diminishing my former freedom to defend it, I will even redouble my courage.
September 57 BC
A miracle requires an air of naivety that no skill can perfectly imitate; it needs the vivid stamp of popular foolishness, representing that kind of marvelous absurdity peculiar to the imagination of crowds.
1926
Madonna and Child
mid-15th century
Although a passion, for being secret, is no less a passion, [...] it matters greatly to know how to make a mystery of it.
1636
To fear blame at every turn is proof of a gentle and simple character, it is true, but one that has no greatness.
100-120 AD
For the greater convenience of the public, while waiting for all the routes to be established [...], one will be able to go in the same carriage from any neighborhood of Paris to the others.
1662
If our will had never acted [...] upon any body, we would never have suspected the existence of bodies.
1817
Terracotta head from a statue
ca. 525–500 BCE
[The power] wants to be the unique agent and sole arbiter of [the citizens'] happiness [...]; why can it not take away from them entirely the trouble of thinking and the pain of living?
1835-1840
Most [historians] write only poor and popular accounts, which are the disgrace of history.
1623
The rational faculty [...] is the only one given to us that can understand itself, its nature, its power, and its value.
c. 108 AD
Wealth in paper was so convenient that people sought only to delude themselves; and [...] they received it with confidence once more.
1776
Standing Herakles (?)
ca. 600–480 BCE
Pity stands in opposition to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressive effect. We lose strength when we feel pity.
1888
To have been at Christ's side [...] during the crucifixion seems to me a much more enviable privilege than to be at his right hand in his glory.
1942
There are then in the soul, it seems, false pleasures, which only ridiculously imitate the true ones [...].
c. 360 BC
He is truly a slave who is enslaved by his passions and is incapable of seeing and doing what is useful to him, and only he is free whose soul is sound and who takes no other guide than reason.
1670
Portrait of a Monk in Prayer
1495
[A] reputation rests simply on the opinion of others, which is extremely easy to erase.
1513-1519
We must not, therefore, treat the mind as if it were what it is 'for nothing, for pleasure'.
1932
Man, without wanting to, without knowing it, creates God in his human image: later this created God creates, wanting to, knowing it, the universe and man.
1841
What distinguishes the restitutive sanction is that it is not expiatory, but amounts to a simple restoration of the state of affairs.
1893
A Bouquet of Flowers in a Crystal Vase
1662
What was called the constitutional ministry [...] was composed of half-liberal, timid, and incapable bureaucrats.
1851-1852
[...] our intellect abstracts not only the universal from the particular, but also the form from the subject of that form.
c. 1270
First-rate minds will never be specialists. Existence as a whole presents itself to them as a problem to be solved.
1905
To maintain one's conclusion, without proving it [...] I call that begging the question; which is entirely unworthy of a philosopher.
1715-1716
Limestone statuette of Zeus Ammon
4th century BCE
Where will I find these connections, if not in the study of myself and the knowledge of men [...]?
1746
Before doing anything, a true Sage examines the goal and chooses the means. [...] they expose such a precious object for such a minimal and uncertain result. In reality, they do even worse, for the life they expose is more precious.
4th century BC
Let us cease to want what we once wanted.
63-64 AD
This great collective idea of all Bodies designated by the term Universe is as much a single idea as that of the smallest particle of Matter in the World.
1689
Limestone statuette of a boy holding a bird
2nd half of the 5th century BCE