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
[The essence of liberty consists in] a principle of action [...] entirely distinct from the motive or the reason which the agent has in view.
1715-1716
As governments [...] seem to have no money for the improvement of schools, it is necessary that private individuals take an interest and contribute.
1777
He is truly a slave who is enslaved by his passions and is incapable of seeing and doing what is useful to him, and only he is free whose soul is sound and who takes no other guide than reason.
1670
Saint Francis
1450s
It is of the essence of the things of the mind not to lend themselves to measurement.
1919
It is universally admitted that partiality is incompatible with justice; preference given to one person over another, when there is no reason to prefer them, is unjust.
1861
Christianity is a metaphysics of the hangman...
1888
If it happens even once that he would rather be another than himself, were that other Socrates or Cato, all is lost; he who begins to become a stranger to himself will not be long in forgetting himself completely.
1762
Mountainous Landscape at Vicovaro
ca. 1786–97
Since the Mind has no other Object of its thoughts [...] than its own Ideas [...], it is evident that our Knowledge is concerned only with our Ideas.
1689
It is perhaps no less difficult to define than it is rare to possess a gift of this nature [the fiery spirit].
1636
Insults and disgrace are much more deeply felt than praise and applause [...].
1674-1675
There are only two ways to guard against [it]. The first is to perfect the education of women [...]. The second [...], would be to rid women of their remaining modesty.
1758
Standing boy with a goose
3rd century BCE
The first impression, always so difficult to erase, has been made.
1760
We are no longer romantics, but romanticism influenced us greatly. We must know the origin of our ideas.
1926
You do not think that you are reading; you believe that these are things happening before your very eyes.
45 BC
To escape envy, you will neither show off your person nor be vain about your possessions; you will know how to enjoy them in the secret of your heart.
63-64 AD
The Love Song
1868–77
The will is by its nature so free that it can never be constrained.
1649
The thefts, murders, and accidents that occur daily [...] for lack of sufficient light in the streets.
1662
It is sometimes more difficult to govern a single man than a great people.
1746
As soon as a man's life is in danger, no one has the right to think of their own safety anymore.
1840
Heroic Landscape with Rainbow
1824
In a word, he no longer belongs to himself, but to the profession he has chosen.
1835-1840
Lucretius affirms [...] that the declination breaks the fati foedera (determinations of fate) and [...] one can say of the atom that the declination is that something in its heart which can fight and resist.
1841
The word 'obtempérer' had a singular effect at court. All the ladies asked what this word meant; and when they learned it meant 'to obey', they made more noise than the ministers.
1769
Moral virtue is destroyed and lost both by deficiency and by excess.
4th century BC
The Organ Rehearsal
1885
Chance is but a word, and the need they have of it to build their systems proves how necessary it is to recognize a first principle.
1755
He who has not gotten to the bottom of things, however ancient he may be, is not in my eyes an authority [...].
4th century BC
We can [...] place cleanliness among the virtues [...] it makes us agreeable to others & serves to win their friendship & goodwill.
1751
Hair [...] enhances the splendor of beauty, and makes ugliness more terrible.
100-120 AD
Marble statue of Aphrodite
1st or 2nd century CE
No one should, for the love of life, resolve to live in servitude.
c. 387 BC
Ideology is a part of zoology.
1801
Most of the souls of the unfortunate mortals [...] complained [...] that they were condemned to this eternal misfortune only for having taken a wife.
1518-1527
It is with extravagant zeal and powerless efforts that men gather to perform intellectual work, expecting everything [...] from the superiority of genius.
1620
Portrait of a Woman with Tapestry Work
1800
The subject is well worth the trouble of reading it.
1574
Time being nothing other than a successive quantity of motion, can be taken [...] in a broad sense for any successive quantity of motion.
c. 1270
I do not portray being. I portray the passage: not a passage from one age to another [...] but from day to day, from minute to minute. My story must be adapted to the moment.
1580
Providence is evidently the conviction that man has of the infinite value of his existence; it is religious idealism.
1841
Standing youth
3rd century BCE
I must strive to have a conception of divine mercy that is not erased, that does not change, whatever event destiny may send upon me.
1947
[Self-love] is not selfishness, for the living being is made to always act for its own sake.
c. 108 AD
Just like the Greek religion, [the totemic religion] puts the divine everywhere; the famous formula πάντα πλήρη θεῶν can also serve as its motto.
1912
The priests of all religions have found the means to base their own power, their wealth, and their greatness on the fears of the common people.
1766
Portrait of a Man
1781