When you're tired of listening to living idiots.
As long as an opinion is rooted in feelings, it defies the most decisive arguments [...]. When an opinion is based on feeling only, the more it is maltreated in a debate, the more persuaded its adherents are that their feeling must rest on some reason that has remained out of reach.
1869
What do they gain, if this very tranquility is one of their miseries? One lives tranquilly in dungeons too; is that enough to feel well in them?
1762
He who wants to learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance: one cannot learn to fly straight away!
1883-1885
It is not a need at all, but rather a mere curiosity that leads only to reveries, to engage in such investigations.
1786
7th–6th century BCE
The wisest were those who cultivated the earth, without inquiring whether it was made of glass or clay [...].
1770
All that exists in the universe is the product of the mixture of the infinite and the finite.
c. 360 BC
There are men [...] who, friends of truth, [...] keep their minds in that state of suspension which leaves a free entry to new truths.
1758
In a word, let us distinguish between an art of cultivating sciences and an art of inventing them.
1620
mid- to late 1760s
Mockery and jesting arise from a false opinion and reveal an imperfection either in the mocker or in the one who is mocked.
c. 1660
He said of [certain people]: 'He dishonors poverty.'
1926
The two powers that exercise the most absolute empire in a State, influence and eloquence, seem today to have united against us.
81 BC
A bad example is the most pernicious doctrine [...] for the indiscreet populace, who thinks that whatever evil is done and suffered is permissible.
c. 1552-1553
1850
Can you ensure my desires meet no obstacles? [...] Do you yourself always succeed in avoiding what you wish to flee?
c. 108 AD
It goes without saying that whoever takes up the gauntlet risks being beaten; is that a reason to admit defeat and surrender without a fight?
1851-1852
Consider the fox, the leopard. [...] they always end up perishing in a net or a trap. Why? Because of their beautiful fur, which men covet.
4th century BC
The whole world will know through me, do not forget, how [power] understands the sanctity of a promise.
1968
1817
I fear that what I have put [...] may be more doubtful & more obscure.
1643-1649
It is [...] difficult to think that I cannot succeed, if my affair is conducted with some skill.
1513-1527
But, as I do not know them, I cannot explain them, for I have no clear idea of my own mind[...]
1674-1675
Luxury, a terrible scourge, infected the whole world with its sweet poison.
circa 68 AD
480–310 BCE
The wicked rule only through the cowardice of those who obey them: it is more just that it be so than otherwise.
c. 253-270 AD
We do not notice, for a man's recommendation, that he takes care to raise his children, because it is a common action, however just it may be.
1580
If two individuals were perfectly similar [...] and indistinguishable in themselves, there would be no principle of individuation; and I would even dare to say that there would be no individual distinction [...] under this condition.
1704
When discussing a question, the first thing to do is to properly understand the ideas being compared [...]. Not only is this the first thing to do, but it is the only one.
1805
7th–6th century BCE
The artist triumphs over his faith, rises above it by making the objects of his faith objects of art.
1842-1845
It is not enough that an action be beautiful and just; the thought which determines it must also be firm and unwavering; one must act only after mature consideration.
100-120 AD
The substantial form which gives being informs prime matter.
c. 1270
Being unable to have anything printed and posted in time, I considered myself a human poster.
1893
1817
There are works of the mind that one cannot conceive of being accomplished with ease and facility. Could one, without effort, invent a new machine [...]?
1919
There is not a single country, not a single people, where the order of God has not consecrated some crime.
1759-1774
To say that we have learned to see, to hear, to taste, to smell, to touch, seems the strangest paradox.
1754
To trace things to their origin and follow their development with care is the surest way to observe them well.
c. 350 BCE
2nd century CE
Our senses, our faculties, and our organs are so arranged that they may serve us for the necessities of this life, and for what we have to do in this world.
1689
The relationships that [restitutive rules] determine [...] are established not between the individual and society, but between restricted and special parts of society, which they link together.
1893
Whatever torch we may light, whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain shrouded in a deep night.
1819
Solitude is to the mind what diet is to the body: deadly when it is too long, although necessary.
1746
ca. 1790
We must be vigilant to ceaselessly purify our inner self, which is always soiled by new stains while also retaining the old ones.
1656-1657
Truths that are pernicious to society, if there are any of this kind, must give way to good and salutary errors.
1751
I call a fool the one who, having committed a folly, does not have the wit and care to smother it on the spot.
1636
Intolerance and the spirit of persecution are of the essence of any sect that has Christianity as its basis.
1766
1501