Until now, sociologists have paid little attention to characterizing and defining the method they apply to the study of social facts.
1895
I am not surprised, [...] everyone values their life for what it is worth.
1512-1527
The kingdom of God exists where justice and charity have the force of right and are imposed as law.
1670
Forced to combat nature or social institutions, one must choose between making a man or a citizen, for one cannot make both at the same time.
1762
Marble portrait of a young woman
ca. 98–117 CE
One suffers the penalty as soon as one expects it; one expects it when one deserves it.
63-64 AD
Interpretation is therefore, in reality, a reconstruction.
1919
Helvétius had corrected and perfected his work; many notes were removed or merged into the text; entire chapters were redone or deleted.
1758
This principle of nature to act by the most determined ways [...] is, in effect, only architectonic, yet it never fails to observe it.
1697
Madame Bergeret de Frouville as Diana
1756
[...] he saw no great inconvenience in that [...], because the need was too pressing to postpone charity.
1662
In the words of Danton, the greatest master of revolutionary tactics yet known: de l’audace, de l’audace, encore de l’audace! (daring, daring, and again daring!)
1851-1852
Nature cannot grant it [despotic power], since it has made no distinction between one person and another.
1690
The marvel of this infernal enterprise is that each leader of the murderers has his flags blessed and solemnly invokes God before going to exterminate his neighbor.
1764
Bronze statuette of a warrior
7th–6th century BCE
I often ponder ways to make him [man] stronger, more wicked, and more profound than he is.
1886
Our political constitution is an aristocracy, which has the approval of the multitude.
c. 387 BC
We do not immediately sense the forms and figures of bodies [...], but we discover them through successive experiences, or we judge them by analogies.
1817
Despair is the greatest of our errors.
1746
Terracotta statuette base
3rd century BCE
The proper operation of man as man is to understand. For it is by this that he differs from other animals.
1270
As long as the goal of meditations and research is limited to the sole pleasure of knowing, [...] the understanding is at ease and no necessity presses it.
1609
Intolerance and the spirit of persecution are of the essence of any sect that has Christianity as its basis.
1766
It is a poor defense, when dealing with an established crime, to fall back on some minor service.
86-82 BC
Limestone inscribed box fragment
3900 BCE - 100 CE
It is [...] very difficult to understand how a soul, [...] after having had the faculty and the habit of reasoning well, can lose all of that because of some vapors.
1643-1649
[...] a soul that seeks divine felicity in the world of the senses is like Narcissus plunging into the abyss to embrace a shadow.
c. 253-270 AD
A king's verse and prose are usually bad.
1819
I am so bad a flatterer, that I am never more at ease than when I can freely give my opinion on the things that pass before our eyes.
1574
Fragmentary bronze statuette of a male votary
ca. 1700–1450 BCE
The only school of true moral sentiment is a society between equals.
1869
You are going astray, this is the way to go.
1636
Recognized integrity is the most secure of all oaths.
1839
The love of glory and reputation is another spring of our machine, which gives much force to the moral sentiment; it is the passion of great souls.
1751
A Woman with the Initials MCC
1773
Conformity to the public good is not guaranteed by any mechanism. An intense and exclusive concern for the public good is its absolutely essential condition.
1957
My purpose [...] is to make of you men who are freed from all hindrance, all constraint, all obstacle, free, tranquil, and happy.
c. 108 AD
A thing repeated several times bothers the listener, and the necessary result is that the proposition becomes obscure.
End of the 4th century BC
Not only do men who live in democratic societies find it difficult to meditate, but they naturally have little esteem for it.
1835-1840
Terracotta statuette of an actor
late 5th–early 4th century BCE
Wherever there are men sensitive to passions, and where imagination is the master of reason, there is strangeness, and an incomprehensible strangeness.
1674-1675
If a work does not bear the mention: 'in collaboration with the Censors,' it can only be out of forgetfulness or ingratitude.
1926
It is a fact that humans multiply whenever fathers are assured of their children's subsistence.
1776
The fate that actually befalls us rarely resembles the one we promised ourselves; at every step we take, we find our expectations disappointed.
1760
Charles de Saint-Radegonde, called Charles Coguin, Abbot of Anchin
ca. 1511–20
As long as a Sage's doctrine has not been refuted, it is not over for him. [...] My doctrine is irrefutable, and I will not deviate from it for any persecution.
4th century BC
The man of proven and perfect virtue desires no other glory than that which is the fruit of public trust, and which opens the way for him to great undertakings.
100-120 AD
When the statesman despairs [...] it is then the clear eye of the artist that discerns the forms [...] of a full and complete humanity.
1896
The soul that has no established goal loses itself: for, as they say, to be everywhere is to be nowhere.
1580
Arrowhead
7000 BCE - 330 CE