In a homogeneous mass, [...] nothing could give birth to the idea of time; duration only begins with a certain variety of effects.
1890
Pulverize jade and pearls, and there will be no more thieves. Burn the contracts, break the seals, and men will become honest again.
4th century BC
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
If he slackens or stiffens too much, [the leader] ceases to be a king [...]; he becomes a flatterer or a despot, and draws upon himself their hatred or contempt.
100-120 AD
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Angels
1460
It is you who are being judged, rather than I.
c. 108 AD
As soon as a woman is pleasing, she is in her place everywhere.
1926
Wealth should not give rise to pride, nor to idleness; it should only be an instrument in the service of virtue.
c. 387 BC
[Humanity is a] virtue of profane morality, which it is necessary to stifle when one wants to be a good Christian; it almost never accords with the interests of the Divinity.
1768
The Birth of Cupid
1550
[Philosophy] shows what to practice or to flee, it sits at the helm and directs our agitated course through the reefs.
63-64 AD
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
When, in a painful and dreadful dream, anguish reaches its peak, it awakens us [...]. The same thing happens in the dream of life, when supreme anxiety pushes us to break its thread.
1851
The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own; it can be called the collective or common conscience.
1893
Terracotta head of a woman
late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
Truth exists for us, and we are capable of reaching it with certainty. [We must know] the means that lead us to it, and the causes that lead us away from it.
1805
You are astonished that God made man so limited, so ignorant, so unhappy. Why are you not astonished that He did not make him more limited, more ignorant, and more unhappy?
1733
If I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel that it cannot be expressed except by answering: 'Because it was he, because it was I.'
1580
One must not regard an idea as chimerical and dismiss it as a beautiful dream, just because obstacles prevent its realization.
1797-1798
Chlorite pestle
ca. 1600–1050 BCE
All good maxims are in the world, [...] one only has to apply them; but that is very difficult.
1746
Temperation is the mutual and corresponding extension of two or more bodies, with their qualities also remaining.
c. 253-270 AD
In these unfortunate times, they dare not raise their own voices to denounce the crime. [...] they remain silent, frightened by the danger.
79 BC
Mercy, rarely used and with judgment, is a beautiful and singular virtue in a prince; but ordinary clemency without distinction [...] is the complete subversion of all order.
c. 1552-1553
Marble cinerary chest with lid
ca. 20–30 CE
Wherever a single [entity] holds power, the good of others is cared for only to the extent that this good may be useful to the one that is master.
1677
And so that this may be a firm and stable matter for all time, we have had our seal affixed to these presents.
1662
The two main pitfalls of heroism are unbridled anger and unrestrained greed: that is where reputation commonly runs aground.
1636
Among a [democratic] people, seriousness is no longer peculiar to certain men; it becomes a national habit.
1835-1840
Limestone statuette of a female votary
3900 BCE - 100 CE
There is nothing so unjust as the complaints of those who want to know everything and want to apply themselves to nothing. They [...] want to be moved always, and for their senses and passions to be incessantly flattered.
1674-1675
Civilized man himself, if he is no longer restrained by this fear, becomes cruel and barbaric.
1772
[So that a fable], like a single and whole living creature, [...] produces a pleasure that is proper to it.
c. 335 BC
The idea that the world is a great machine that moves without God's intervention [...] introduces materialism and fatalism.
1715-1716
Standing female figurine
ca. 600–480 BCE
Classical paganism was characterized by unity; dualism, division, disagreement in all things are the character of Christianity.
1842-1845
One only hears these words: So-and-so is dead, so-and-so is sick; this one has fled, that one is shut up at home; [...] there are some of whom we have no news.
1527
If women do not complain about the power of husbands, each one complains about her own husband, or the husbands of her friends. It is the same in all other forms of servitude [...].
1869
The play of all human passions offers [...] lessons to whoever wants to study history to know oneself and become wise at the expense of the dead.
1762
Shield bearer
ca. 600–480 BCE
I fear that what I have put [...] may be more doubtful & more obscure.
1643-1649
The bourgeois republic signifies the unlimited despotism of one class over other classes.
1851/1852
The proper aim and ultimate end of true philosophy is to reign over all beings, over natural bodies, over remedies, over machines [...].
1609
Following the opinions of other men is a great source of error.
1689
Surprised, or Infidelity Found Out
1732
The imperative 'become hard!', the fundamental certainty that all creators are hard, this is the true distinctive sign of a Dionysian nature.
1888
The author and the publisher are two players in a game: if the latter pays as he wishes, on the other hand he does not know what he is buying.
1741-1784
The cause of wrong readings: public opinion, passions.
1947
Why should the idea of human fragility [...] trouble your most delicious hours? Why should this fatal poison corrupt pleasures at their very source...?
1742
The Public Garden at Pontoise
1874