...that sad truth that even an invasion does not reconcile political parties.
1751
Socialist theories continued to penetrate the minds of the people in the form of greedy and envious passions, and to deposit there the seed of future revolutions.
1893
However, who can be sure of what goes on in the hearts of kings, and of what determines their will?
1746
When a people is given over to all the furies of popular upheavals, it is not its rampages that one fears [...] one trembles to see a tyrant rise from the midst of the disorders.
1513-1519
Marble two-sided relief
1st century CE
Far from there being a universally valid education for all humankind, there is [...] no society where different pedagogical systems do not coexist and function in parallel.
1922
Normal and average profits are realized by selling commodities not above their real value, but at their real value.
1865
[Some] found the author's style too archaic and sometimes too brutal.
1643-1662
The shorter the narrative, the clearer and easier it is to grasp.
86-82 BC
Marble head of Herakles
1st century CE
The injury is the same, the crime is equal, whether it is committed by a man wearing a crown, or by a man of naught.
1690
Pride, indeed, wants only to do its own will; humility, on the contrary, does the will of God.
1263-1264
I want faith to be founded on reason: without that, why would we prefer the Bible to the Quran or the ancient books of the Brahmins?
1704
The question was proposed in conversation: 'What is the best kind of death?' Caesar, answering before anyone else, cried out: 'The unexpected one.'
100-120 AD
Pansies
1903
Does the moral change the physical?
1772
The things that the celestial gods produce do not result from a free choice, but from a natural necessity, because they act, as parts of the universe, upon the other parts of the universe.
c. 253-270 AD
It belongs to the essence of a mountain to have a valley.
c. 1660
In matters of institution, and in general matters, 'less good' is never a small defect.
1743
Landscape Study with Clouds
ca. 1829–31
What is good? — All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.
1888
Without compassion or pity, the philosopher will do everything that the sensitive and compassionate man does.
55-56 AD
To wish to arrive at absolute certainty is, in a way, a testimony to madness and extreme uncertainty.
1580
We always measure duration by movement. A period of time is always manifested by a movement performed.
1817
Marble architectural fragment with palmette from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis
3rd or 2nd century BCE
Just as a banknote is only a promise of gold, so a concept is valuable only for the eventual perceptions it represents.
1934
Everything can change its appearance in this world, because everything is subject to growth and decline.
1636
Did I need you to teach me that the body my parents gave me is well-made? Do you think your compliments affect me, when I know you will denigrate me elsewhere more than you have flattered me here?
4th century BC
For morality there is no need of an end to act well, and the law alone, which contains the formal condition of the use of freedom in general, is sufficient.
1793
Horse and rider
ca. 750–600 BCE
The most perfect being is always attached to humanity by a small corner of imperfection.
1896
If thought is the form, feeling is the color.
1870
I would never advise anyone to read [me], except those who would wish to [...] meditate seriously, and who can detach their minds from the commerce of the senses and [...] from all sorts of prejudices.
1641
It is always four or five who maintain the tyrant, four or five who keep the whole country in servitude.
c. 1552-1553
Marble capital and finial in the form of a sphinx
ca. 530 BCE
Do you not see that the courts [...], offended by a defense, have often put innocent men to death, and often acquitted the guilty whose words had moved their pity or flattered their ears?
4th century BC
The husband and wife are one legal person; which is to say that everything that is hers is his, but not the reciprocal [...].
1869
It is I who anticipate the future, and who know its thought.
1741-1784
Of all the goods that nature has granted to man, none surpasses a premature death; and what is excellent in it is that everyone can procure it for themselves.
1851
Stucco relief panel
2nd half of 1st century CE
[Disputes are] debates [...] between the infallible interpreters of the word of God, who [...] did not wish to speak too clearly, for fear that his dear Priests would have nothing to squabble about.
1768
Of all the needs of the human soul, there is none more vital than the past.
1943
The more terrible the god, the more docile and submissive we are to his ministers.
1757
He who made the sun [...], who moves it around the world, would not be capable of knowing everything!
c. 108 AD
Leisure Time in an Elegant Setting
ca. 1663–65
There exist well-known [remedies]; but the gradation to be followed in administering them is so delicate [...] that very few people are able to benefit from them.
1623
Regarding touch, [man] is far superior to all other animals. [...] Which also makes him the most intelligent of animals.
384–322 BC
Error [...] consists only in a hasty consent of the will, which allows itself to be dazzled by some false glimmer.
1674-1675
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
Portrait of a Woman
1790