The subject is well worth the trouble of reading it.
1574
Oh my Master! [...] You who destroy without being wicked! You who build without being good! You who were before time, and are not old!
4th century BC
Art is 'the highest manifestation of the life of men in common'.
1896
The very history of philosophy is often nothing but the fabric of errors into which [false premonitions] have thrown philosophers.
1755
The Holy Family with Saint Paul and a Donor
1430
But there is no one here reasonable enough to understand them [...].
1643-1649
What harm was there in being recognized as a philosopher by my actions, but not by my appearance?
c. 108 AD
[The universal Being is] the source of all Beings, which produces them without distinction, [...] man costing no more to produce than the smallest worm or the slightest plant.
17th century
I have never reflected on questions that are not questions, I have never wasted myself.
1888
Limestone statue of a veiled female votary
1st century BCE
They are duped neither by the honesty of men nor by the chastity of women and never speak of virtue without a certain smile, which says more than their words.
1926
desire for a mere trifle, or for something manifestly harmful [...], ceaselessly justifies itself against reason, since so many passions work towards its justification.
1674-1675
I reduce all of mechanics to a single proposition of metaphysics.
1686
If you can establish a state of society in which everyone has something to keep, and little to take, you will have done much for the peace of the world.
1835-1840
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Bénévent
1808
Among all these [...] gentle creatures [...] there is hardly one [...] that could not be turned into a ferocious beast.
1760
Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.
c. 375 BC
What is the peculiar character of the modern world? [...] It is that man is no longer born to the place he will occupy in life [...], but is free to use his faculties [...] to create for himself the fate that seems most desirable to him.
1869
All very ancient events are uncertain, and [...] it is not without danger that one writes the history of more modern times.
1623
Amulet
7000 BCE - 330 CE
If we examine the virtues that Christianity recommends, we will see that they are ill-suited for man, that they raise him above his sphere, that they are useless to society, and that they are often of the most dangerous consequence for it.
1766
We should not be surprised by the difference in our reasoning when we are currently animated by a passion [...] and when we reflect on it calmly. In both cases, we are not really operating on the same perceptions.
1805
Of Essence and Quality.
c. 253-270 AD
As His Majesty takes pleasure in providing various conveniences to his subjects, [...] this gives occasion for minds to seek new ones every day.
1662
Head of a comic figurine
late 4th–3rd century BCE
The sole defect, in a sense, of all works, is that they are too long.
1746
To question whether we shall remain faithful [to power] is already to be unfaithful to it.
100-120 AD
The Protestants, instead of helping him become more powerful, contented themselves with demanding the free profession of the Augsburg Confession...
1753-1754
Weak republics are irresolute and do not know how to make a decision; or if they do adopt one, it must be attributed to necessity rather than to their choice.
1513-1519
The Conversion of Saint Paul
1440
Philosophy has but few true followers; and even over them it has only a very weak and very limited authority.
1742
If magnitude, outside of you, is never intensive, intensity, within you, is never magnitude.
1889
If quickness of mind alone should not command in chief, it can at least command in second.
1636
I know in advance with what grand words I will be attacked: enlightenment, knowledge, laws, morality, reason, decency, regards, gentleness, amenity, politeness, education, etc.
1750
Gamepiece with a Dead Heron
1695
if you impose [your beliefs] on those who do not find them conformable [...], you yourself are a heretic, if for dogmas that cannot be fundamental, you cause a separation.
1686
There are [...] truths so luminous that nothing can obscure their clarity.
81 BC
The amount of metal absorbed by the national circulation and the amount sent abroad for international circulation varies every day.
1865
The great and unique proof of love is to love those who are opposed to us.
1263-1264
Terracotta statuette of an actor
late 5th–early 4th century BCE
Far from being able to date the effacement of the individual from the institution of a despotic power, we must on the contrary see in it the first step that was taken on the path of individualism.
1893
In a word, I do not claim to give my opinion for others.
1737-1771
It is a great thing [...] and one that requires long practice, to know how to depart without a murmur when the inevitable hour arrives.
63-64 AD
What kind of truth is it that is bounded by these mountains, and is a lie to the world beyond?
1580
The Huis ten Bosch at The Hague and Its Formal Garden (View from the South)
ca. 1668–70
The advocate of [the doctrine of happiness] cannot hope to be happy if he is not conscious of having done his duty; and he can only be moved to do his duty by the hope of happiness.
1797-1798
The union of contradictories is a tearing apart: it is impossible without extreme suffering.
1947
So powerful is the will over the intellect.
1840
Each thing [...] must be judged by its own special sense and not by a foreign one.
c. 350 B.C.E.
A Man and a Woman on Horseback
ca. 1653–54