Because of this kinship, man sees in the animals of the totemic species benevolent associates on whose assistance he believes he can count.
1912
Most of these rich men were poor; they have felt the sting of need [...], and now that the victory is won, the passions that accompanied the struggle survive it.
1835-1840
I consider a certain suspension of judgment with regard to all thoughts whatsoever, without exception, as constituting the virtue of humility in the domain of the intellect.
1942
The satyr, as a Dionysian chorist, lives in a religious reality recognized under the sanction of myth and cult.
1872
Bronze statuette of a satyr and maenad
ca. 510–480 B.C
One must not grieve over the cessation of personality as if it were a misfortune. [...] The physical self has ceased to be [...] but the transcendent self remains.
4th century BC
[The bourgeoisie] knew that the moment had to be seized and that, without the help of the working masses, it would be defeated; but it lacked the courage.
1851-1852
Does one judge according to one's sensations [...]? The judgments are always right. Does one judge according to one's prejudices, that is to say, according to others? The judgments are always false.
1772
Nothing is as rare as a perfectly honest man, except perhaps a perfect scoundrel.
1745
Chalcedony amulet, thunderbolt
664–334 BCE
[...] it was during the decline of Greece that [the illustrious man] became famous: thus his successes were his own work.
100-120 AD
Pure concepts of the understanding therefore have absolutely no meaning if they desert the objects of experience and want to be related to things in themselves (noumena).
1783
[Some] perish for having preferred what they should have feared to what could not harm them.
c. 108 AD
It is impossible to honor those one despises, nor to willingly obey those one hates and holds in horror.
c. 1552-1553
Buckle
3900 BCE - 100 CE
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
[...] what they [women] understand the least is almost always what flatters them the most.
1926
The more often we have had any given perception, the more easily we recall its memory; but also the less this memory strikes and moves us.
1801
Another sign of a prosperity nearing its end is its long duration: fortune grows old [...] with the years, as we do.
1636
Portrait of a Man (Sir Ralph Sadler?)
1535
It is easier to argue about a clear word than about an obscure one.
End of the 4th century BC
Does it not seem to you that I have been preparing for it all my life? [...] By living without committing the slightest injustice, which is, in my eyes, the most beautiful way to prepare a defense.
4th century BC
A power aspiring only to empire and glory, and not to rest, cannot refuse such an enterprise.
1513-1519
The more wit one has, the greater the passions.
1643-1662
Christ Shown to the People
1510–15
What purpose does the incommensurability of the side with the diagonal serve?
1695
[A God] who would transform himself into a world [...] to endure misery, suffering, and death, without measure or end, in the form of countless millions of living beings [...].
1851
The need to philosophize is universal: it tends to bring any discussion, even about business, to the level of ideas and principles.
1915
Authority also supports men's prejudices, forbids them from examining, forces them into ignorance, and is always ready to punish anyone who would attempt to undeceive them.
1766
Charles de Saint-Radegonde, called Charles Coguin, Abbot of Anchin
ca. 1511–20
The world is an organized and living being, an animal, [...] and full of a great Soul in which all particular souls are contained.
c. 253-270 AD
The Intellectual World and the Material World are [...] similar in this point, That the part we see [...] has no proportion to what we do not see.
1689
Men [...] are inclined to esteem themselves rather above than below their worth, and that is why it is so easy to hurt us by carrying self-esteem too far.
1751
Say that the persecuted wise man is preferable to his unworthy persecutor [...]; but admit that the wise man in chains is enraged. If the wise man does not admit it, he is deceiving you, he is a charlatan.
1764
Two fulcra (headrest) attachments in the form of mule's heads
ca. late 3rd–1st century BCE
Laziness is almost always victorious over the love of truth.
1674-1675
You are not capable of receiving the Holy Spirit as long as you continue to know Jesus Christ only according to the flesh.
1263-1264
Those who have said that the Gods exist are in such great variety and disagreement [...] that it is certainly not possible that more than one of their opinions be true.
17th century
It is not the same for papers, which have only a fictitious value, as for gold and silver, which have a real value.
1776
Marble statue head of a youth
1st or 2nd century CE
The mystery of the miracle.
1841
This supreme happiness is a hundred times sweeter to hope for than to obtain; one enjoys it more when awaiting it than when tasting it.
1762
An old proverb says that it is easier to make a buffoon rich than to make him a gentleman.
81 BC
Repentance [...] serves to make us correct ourselves, not only for faults committed voluntarily, but also for those made through ignorance.
1643-1649
Saints John the Baptist and Matthew
possibly 1433
It is better to derogate from one's station than from one's genius.
1746
What makes us laugh [...] happens to us all [...] No one recognizes himself as stingy, no one as greedy.
63-64 AD
Nothing, whatever it may be, exists except according to its [Nature's] laws.
1580
The feeling of freedom as it may exist in a man who rests his affections on beings of whom he is the absolute master, is not the true love of freedom.
1869
Christ Taking Leave of His Mother
ca. 1500