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
There is an internal war in man between reason and the passions.
1670
Life develops towards a goal, death is a return to a destination. Genesis follows genesis without end, without our knowing their origin or seeing their term.
4th century BC
The will alone constitutes man properly speaking; the intellect is simply his organ, his antennae directed outwards [...].
1839
The French Comedians
ca. 1720
God loves his work in us, but God would not have done in us what is worthy of his love if, before doing so, he had not loved us first.
1263-1264
The same nations have shown themselves, at different periods of their history, chaste or dissolute. The regularity or disorder of their morals thus depended on certain changing causes, and not merely on the nature of the country, which did not change.
1835-1840
Nothing is easier than to start a fire from this spark; but also, nothing is easier than to smother it.
1715-1778
The more perfect a thing is, the more it partakes of the Divinity and the more it expresses its perfections.
1661-1676
Fragmentary marble sarcophagus with scenes from the Oresteia
mid-2nd century CE
Imagination is the source of happiness that is not yet and the poison of the happiness that follows. It is a faculty that exaggerates and deceives.
1774
It is quite true that what is entirely similar and differs in absolutely no way [...] can suffer absolutely nothing [...] from its like.
c. 350 B.C.E.
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood [...] by the masses.
c. 375 BC
Precepts are not given to be practiced, but practice is prescribed for the understanding of precepts. They are scales.
1947
Saint Francis of Assisi
ca. 1480–81
Leaders are in fact the first individual personalities to have emerged from the social mass.
1893
What is not good is to abandon the Creator to live according to the created good, whether one wants to live according to the flesh, or according to the soul, or according to the whole man.
c. 253-270 AD
Hope makes more dupes than skill.
1746
Once the main dogmas and principles of religion have been [...] entirely removed from the examination of reason; only then is it permissible to deduce [...] consequences from them.
1623
Bronze stamp
1st–2nd century CE
[Passions] alone can tear us away from that inertia and laziness always ready to seize all the faculties of our soul.
1758
The Mind [...] assembles under a single point of view things that are very distant, and independent of one another.
1689
Nations harm each other mutually [...] because they each deprive themselves of the advantages they provided one another through trade.
1776
[...] the paths through which the spirits flow are smoother and more united by the habit of practice[...]
1674-1675
Fragment of a limestone relief with two standing figures
4th–3rd century BCE
When we think of the infinite power of God, we cannot help but believe that all things depend on Him, and, consequently, that our free will is not exempt from it.
1643-1649
The most perfect being is always attached to humanity by a small corner of imperfection.
1896
A moment of error has changed everything.
1761
If one substitutes the principle of happiness [...] for that of freedom [...], the consequence will be the insensible death (the euthanasia) of all morality.
1797-1798
Faience statuette of Aphrodite
334–30 BCE
If there is a supreme intelligence [...] let us be assured that it takes pleasure in seeing us fulfill the purpose of our existence, by enjoying all the pleasures for which we were created.
1742
O [my rival], I envy your death, since you envied me the glory of giving you life!
100-120 AD
Alternately, the idea gives birth to the sign, and the sign gives birth to the idea.
1801
The history of the elections proves irrefutably that in proportion as the actual power of the bourgeoisie developed, its moral power over the masses of the people was lost.
1851/1852
Two marble portrait heads from a relief
ca. 13 BCE–5 CE
By saying that things are not good by any rule of goodness, but by the sole will of God, one destroys, it seems to me, without thinking, all love for God and all his glory.
1686
Loyalty, generosity, the shame of a good reputation: these three things united in a single feeling—this is what we call noble, distinguished[...]
1881
Every time I give a speech, I feel I am before a tribunal that will judge not only my talent, but also my integrity and character.
66 BC
Vices are all alike in that they are all vices [...] but though they are equally vices, they are not equal vices.
1580
Bronze statuette of a youth carrying a pig
early 5th century BCE
Of all mortals, only they have true leisure, those who give theirs to wisdom; only they know how to live.
c. 49 AD
Is it not enough for you to not be sick, without shouting out loud: 'see me in good health, without any kind of illness?'
c. 108 AD
If the dogmas [...] are mysteries inaccessible to reason; if the God [...] is an inconceivable God, we should not be surprised to see that [...] this religion maintains an unintelligible and mysterious tone.
1766
The 'power of the people over themselves' does not express the true state of the case; [...] self-government [...] is not the government of each by himself, but of each by all the rest.
1859
The Missionary's Adventures
ca. 1883
Often a man of merit ends up with a beast, or a wise woman falls into the hands of a fool.
1518
In this beautiful season, in abundance, [the flowers] show their bloomed dresses.
1546/1563
The gods are rich, and it is only natural that they enrich their friends.
1926
The error of empiricism [...] is to position itself [...] halfway between life and science. [...] It is not yet quite science, and it is no longer life.
1900
Filippo Archinto (born about 1500, died 1558), Archbishop of Milan
mid-1550s