Paganism sacrificed bodies, whereas Christianity sacrifices souls.
1842-1845
Those who have the strongest reasoning [...] can always best persuade what they propose, even if they only spoke Low-Breton.
1637
Principles must not be accepted without severe examination.
1689
lust being like a furnace, which blazes up [...] if any outlet is left for the flames; and whose fire is extinguished absolutely, as soon as it is enclosed.
1627
Stucco relief panel
2nd half of 1st century CE
It is so delightful to me to believe myself the object of your friendship that I have resolved to keep this belief.
1741-1784
The unlimited independence of the individual will cannot be a barrier against the vices that each of us carries within.
c. 350 BCE
What becomes of morality when the leading citizens [...] know only the need for money, when any means of making it is accepted among them, and none brings dishonor?
1776
[...] a dangerous attack was launched against us [...], which aimed to ruin it by turning it into ridicule [...], but the King responded so obligingly [...] that they sheathed their swords, and promptly.
1662
Terracotta plank-shaped figurine
ca. 2000–1800 BCE
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
To react violently against an invincible feeling is to inflict a double wear upon oneself: the pain, plus the reaction. None who do so live long.
4th century BC
They were unable either to frame a constitution or to amend in any way the general legislation. They occupied themselves almost exclusively with nice theoretical distinctions, mere formalities...
1851-1852
[Works of analysis] are the only ones that open up the near future and the true Revolution...
1934
Marble relief fragment with the head of Mars
early 3rd century CE
Every error, wherever it is found, must be pursued and rooted out as harmful to humanity, and there can be no privileged errors [...].
1819
No one is more prone to mistakes than those who act only upon reflection.
1747
The source of our passions, [...] the only one that is born with man and never leaves him as long as he lives, is self-love.
1762
The copy of a beautiful thing is always an ugly thing. It is, in admiration of an act of energy, an act of cowardice.
1926
The Calm Sea
1869
Why Americans are so restless in the midst of their prosperity.
1835-1840
He who believes without having any reason to believe may be in love with his own fancies, but it is not true that he seeks the truth.
1704
It is not the violent struggle between different parts of the truth that is the formidable evil, but the quiet suppression of one half of the truth.
1859
If a being can by its nature be sympathetically affected by another being, it does not follow that the medium [...] shares the affection.
c. 253-270 AD
Inscribed marble plaque
2nd–3rd century CE
Mercy, rarely used and with judgment, is a beautiful and singular virtue in a prince; but ordinary clemency without distinction [...] is the complete subversion of all order.
c. 1552-1553
The problem of freedom is therefore born of a misunderstanding: it has been for the moderns what the sophisms of the school of Elea were for the ancients.
1889
Our passions are not susceptible to those impressions that come from the refinement of the mind and imagination.
1751
I see everywhere men, more cunning and more educated than the common folk, deceiving them with illusions [...] that they believe to be supernatural, because they are ignorant of the secrets of nature and the resources of art.
1766
Portrait of a Woman
1838
We always measure duration by movement. A period of time is always manifested by a movement performed.
1817
This is not the time to remember insults; and even if I could take revenge, I would still prefer to forget them.
September 57 BC
A powerful and courageous prince will always know how to overcome these difficulties, either by making his subjects hope that the evil will not be long-lasting [...].
1513
Convinced that the only way to recover from all the evils caused by the civil wars was the authority of one man, they named him perpetual dictator.
100-120 AD
Bronze handle of a hydria (water jar)
ca. 460–450 BCE
The doctrine of equality! But there is no more venomous poison, for it seems to be preached by justice itself, whereas it is the end of all justice.
1888
As for what certain Churches add, that God took upon Himself human nature, I have expressly warned that I do not know what they mean.
1661-1676
If the intellect is not some part of a man [...] there will be no will in that man [...] and so that man will not be the master of his actions, [...] which is to destroy the principles of moral philosophy.
1270
[This thought] is not meant for riches alone; whatever it is applied to, it will have the same force.
63-64 AD
Marble bust of a bearded man
ca. 150–175 CE
An outburst, escaped in certain moments, can put the hero on the same level as the common man; it can even put the latter above the former.
1636
It is in the union [of the three powers] that the salvation of the State resides (salus reipublicæ suprema lex est).
1797
They were easily accustomed to society by giving them new needs for the products brought to them.
1756
Therefore, one must not believe men because men have spoken, for every man is a deceiver.
1674-1675
Frescoes from the Villa Stati-Mattei
1501
To preserve their desires [...] the knight and his mistress had to [...] commit one to attack, the other to resist.
1772
Most men are rich with the knowledge of others; it can very well happen that someone quotes a beautiful sentence [...] without grasping its full scope.
1580
It is enough for each individual to devote himself to a special function to find himself, by the force of things, in solidarity with others.
1893
No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
c. 375 BC
A Patrician Couple
1730