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Dead Smart People

When you're tired of listening to living idiots.

Français

It seems [...] more in conformity with human nature to base the expectation of another life on the sentiments of a well-ordered soul, than to base one's conduct on the hope of another life.

1766

However, who can be sure of what goes on in the hearts of kings, and of what determines their will?

1746

The cultivation of the land promises [...] almost certain results, but slow ones. One gets rich from it only little by little and with difficulty.

1835-1840

What is duration within us? A qualitative multiplicity, with no resemblance to number; an organic development which is nevertheless not a growing quantity.

1889

Hans Holbein the Younger

Portrait of a Man (Sir Ralph Sadler?)

Portrait of a Man (Sir Ralph Sadler?)

1535

April, the sweet hope of fruits [...] which nourish their young infancy.

1546/1563

In the body of Tuo the Ugly, there lived a perfect latent virtue. It was this virtue that drew people to him, despite the repulsive form of his body.

4th century BC

Each individual gives the name of 'mind' only to the set of ideas that are useful to them, either as instructive or as pleasant.

1758

It is the history of the human spirit, written by a man of genius for the use of people of wit.

1751

Cypriot artist

Chlorite pestle

Chlorite pestle

ca. 1600–1050 BCE

The main purpose of my journey was to see Rome.

1774

The devils themselves [...] preferred to return to burn in hell than to live in this world under the orders of such a woman.

1518-1527

Broad and beautiful things can please for a long time; those that are merely pretty and cute soon tire the ear, the most disdainful of our senses.

86-82 BC

Sacred beings only are what they are because they are represented as such in the mind. Should we cease to believe in them, they would be as if they were not.

1912

Italic

Pendant: head of a woman

Pendant: head of a woman

5th century BCE

It is not the diversity of opinions, which one cannot prevent, but the refusal of tolerance, which one could grant, that has been the source of all the wars [...] on the matter of religion.

1686

Sickness is the natural state of the Christian.

1670

The more one has false principles of honor & Religion, the more one will be dissatisfied with oneself, and consequently the more miserable one will be.

1745

[Witty remarks and bold actions] have often been like wings to suddenly reach the summit of greatness.

1636

Antoine Vollon

Still Life with Cheese

Still Life with Cheese

probably late 1870s

To be something, to be oneself and always one, one must act as one speaks; one must always be decided on the course to take, take it firmly, and always follow it.

1762

Of all the things proper to mortify human vanity, there is perhaps none more humiliating than to see the weakness [...] of the efforts of art [...] when it comes to equalling nature.

1742

I do not think that the study of Mathematics is more apt than any other to make the mind just.

1817

When we come to know God, who alone has all perfection in Himself, we must necessarily love Him.

c. 1660

Etruscan artist

Bronze floral element

Bronze floral element

ca. 550–500 BCE

The feeling of justice may be a particular instinct, and yet require, like all our other instincts, the supervision and enlightenment of a higher reason.

1861

Moderate exercises promote health.

End of the 4th century BC

This idea of unity [...] was, in fact, very widespread, especially in the smaller states.

1851-1852

A man is best portrayed in his career, in his works, and in his words.

1896

Greek Artist

Limestone head of a girl

Limestone head of a girl

3rd century BCE

We praise only the irrational part of the soul, insofar as it can serve and does serve the rational part by obeying it.

4th century BC

I know how subject we are to be mistaken in what touches us, and also how much the judgments of our friends ought to be suspected when they are in our favor.

1637

The artist [...] must depersonalize himself, be a man of no party, no fashion, no era, but one through whom the soul of all circulates.

1870

We see that, in games [...] the first rules, the first laws are purely positive, purely conventional, rules that must be adopted purely and simply, and without dispute.

1623

Louis Léopold Boilly

Portrait of a Man

Portrait of a Man

1781

God has made from the beginning each of these two substances of such a nature that by following only its own laws [...], it nevertheless agrees with the other.

1696

Each language expresses the character of the people who speak it.

1746

The entire universe is object only with regard to a subject, perception only in relation to a perceiving mind, in a word, it is pure representation.

1819

The reality of the sensible universe is constituted by a necessity whose laws are the symbolic expression of the mysteries of faith.

1953

Cypriot artist

Gabbro mace head

Gabbro mace head

ca. 2500–1900 BCE

The city was merely exchanging one tyranny for another.

100-120 AD

To be everywhere is to be nowhere.

63-64 AD

Show me a man who is at once sick and happy, in peril and happy, dying and happy, in exile and happy, disgraced and happy. Show him to me.

c. 108 AD

Pity stands in opposition to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressive effect. We lose strength when we feel pity.

1888

Cypriot artist

Limestone statuette of a female votary

Limestone statuette of a female votary

3900 BCE - 100 CE

We are active and passive because we are in the one animal and we constitute parts of it.

c. 253-270 AD

The conviction of certainty [...] is a sure testimony of madness and extreme uncertainty.

1674-1675

The Lord's head represents the sublime height of his divinity, and his feet the humility of his incarnation; or again, the head is Jesus Christ himself, the feet are the poor who are his members.

1263-1264

[...] how can it be that Christians continue to sin, as if they had not been redeemed [...]? From which we see that [this mystery] is impenetrable to reason, its effectiveness disproven by experience.

1766

Unknown Artist

Implement, cone-shaped

Implement, cone-shaped

7000 BCE - 330 CE