Where do we want to go? Do we want to cross the sea? Where is this powerful passion, which for us outweighs all other passions, taking us?
1881
...wherever the working class [...] is concentrated in any considerable numbers, it is entirely freed from the democratic influence which [...] led it into a whole series of blunders and misfortunes.
1851-1852
Freedom and authority have sometimes been opposed [...]. But this opposition is artificial. [...] Freedom is the daughter of well-understood authority.
1922
In a monarchy, judicial offices must be for sale; because if they were not, intrigue would sell them, and the administration of justice would be sheer robbery.
1776
Heroic Landscape with Rainbow
1824
There is no duty so sacred and respectable that greed will not outrage and trample it underfoot!
81 BC
Through obscure instruments, with great difficulty, a small number of men going towards their images perceive the essence of the model.
1953
It is more in keeping with humanity to laugh at the things of life than to groan over them.
49 to 62 A.D.
What is intended in marriage is not the pleasure of the mind, but the procreation of children; marriage is a union of hearts, not of heads.
1819
Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque)
1887–88
Well-disposed towards all, when someone does not act as they should, [the transcendent man] points it out through his own correct attitude, thus correcting them without words.
4th century BC
The parish assembly is only an administrative inquiry [...], it never leads to a vote, [...] it contains only individual opinions, and in no way binds the will of the government.
1856
He [man] could enjoy some peace if he had only reason without passions, or if he had only passions without reason.
1670
Vanity [...] consists in such an immoderate display of one's own advantages [...] that it can only offend others by shocking, without measure, their ambition and their secret vanity.
1751
Portrait of a Woman
1785
The characteristic feature of Wagner's thought is its astonishing unity: a unity that connects writings from different eras [...] through the commonality of the point of view.
1896
Man is extremely subject to error; the illusions of his senses, the visions of his imagination, and the abstractions of his mind deceive him at every moment.
1674-1675
Any citizen who, from the outset, wishes to obtain the favor of the people must [...] earn it through some brilliant action.
1513-1519
The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible [...] for its adequate solution.
1637
Lower right corner of a marble sarcophagus, illustrating the discovery of Achilles by Odysseus on the island of Skyros
ca. 160–180 CE
All these perceptions or ideas that we merely feel, and as a consequence of which we then judge and desire, are very different from one another.
1817
The agreement of two private interests is formed by opposition to a third.
1762
Others spend their lives doubting and arguing, without bothering about the subjects of their disputes and their doubts.
1746
It is the mark of a wise man to anticipate these declines [...] without waiting for his turn to experience them abruptly.
1636
The Declaration of Love
ca. 1724
To be a hypocrite, what baseness! But to be a hypocrite and wicked, what horror!
1764
When one passes away with a body full of health and a soul full of tenderness, how could one not be an object of regret?
4th century BC
If God can do everything & nothing can be done without him, whence is it that the Devil hates him [...]? Either God consents to it, or he does not.
17th century
One needs colors to paint the night and words to praise silence.
1926
Faience amulet of an animal-headed god
664–334 BCE
[Lawmakers] might be tempted to propose [...] only their own advantage, and to have distinct and separate interests from the rest of the community.
1690
Confusion is the transmutation of two or more bodily qualities, such that a new thing is born from it, different from those qualities.
c. 253-270 AD
Not virtue itself, but the idea of virtue is innate.
1704
It is a great simplicity [...] to imagine that one can deposit any art in books, [...] as if anything clear and solid ever came out of books.
c. 350 B.C.E.
Saint George
1472
The soul of the Christian can [...] be troubled, not by suffering, but by a feeling of compassion.
1263-1264
Few men long brave the hatred of the powerful out of pure love for humanity and truth.
1772
[His] courage [...] knew no other pleasure than that given by public esteem, which is the prize for noble deeds.
100-120 AD
Miracles seem to have been invented only to substitute for good reasoning; truth and evidence do not need miracles to be adopted.
1766
Marble grave relief with a funerary banquet and departing warriors
2nd century BCE
The tribunal and the prison are different places [...]; but your judgment and your will can remain the same in either, if you wish.
c. 108 AD
[...] I consider justice grounded on utility to be the most important, the most sacred part of morality.
1861
If to have liberty it is necessary only to desire it, if only a simple act of will is needed, will there be any nation in the world that still deems it too expensive [...]?
c. 1552-1553
Difficulty is inherent in the practice of virtue.
1580
A Man with the Initials JD
1790
A posteriori and a priori denote [...] differences in nature or value, but not a chronological anteriority or posteriority.
1900
Sciences and their inventions spread immediately and fly everywhere; for science is communicated as easily as light.
1609
My soul easily ignites, gets exalted, is touched; but what does it mean when the calling is not there?
1760
In any real opposition, both predicates must be positive, yet in such a way that in their connection the consequences mutually destroy each other in the same subject.
1763
Sunset after a Storm on the Coast of Sicily
1853