I learned not to believe anything too firmly of which I had been persuaded only by example and custom.
1637
It is not our senses that deceive us, but our will that deceives us through its hasty judgments.
1674-1675
I cannot but admire the audacity and recklessness of those persons who believe they can express the dogmas necessary for salvation more clearly than the Holy Spirit itself.
1686
A new government, and especially a conquering government, can well give material power to its friends, but it cannot communicate to them the moral power and force of opinion that it does not itself possess.
1847
Francis I (1494–1547), King of France
1507
Nothing is more contradictory than the opinions of moralists.
1772
Fortune blinds the minds of men when she does not wish them to oppose her designs.
1855
After that, I need not prove anything, unless one demands that I prove God is skillful enough to use this preemptive artifice.
1696
Philosophy, not as a doctrine, but as a critique, [serves to] prevent the missteps of judgment (lapsus judicii) in the use of the pure concepts that the understanding provides us.
1781
Handle attachment
900 BCE - 100 BCE
The social pact establishes among the citizens such an equality of right that they all engage themselves under the same conditions and must all enjoy the same benefits.
1762
There is only one way that leads [...], to renounce all things that do not depend on our free will, to detach ourselves from them, to recognize that they are foreign to us.
c. 108 AD
There is no one who does not desire to live in security and sheltered from fear, as much as possible; yet this situation is impossible as long as everyone can do everything as they please.
1670
In the world, everything acts according to what it is, according to its constitution [...] In this, man is no exception in nature: he too has his immutable character.
1840
Agnes Sewell
possibly ca. 1800
God as a moral being or law.
1841
A bad example is the most pernicious doctrine [...] for the indiscreet populace, who thinks that whatever evil is done and suffered is permissible.
c. 1552-1553
To think about change and to see it, there is a whole veil of prejudices to be drawn aside, [...] some created by philosophical speculation, others natural to common sense.
1911
A ready-made idea is an absolutely non-transmissible thing; to be truly conscious of it, [...] one must necessarily [...] have experienced it.
1801
Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859)
1859
My greatest desire is to lose not only all will, but my own self.
1942
...those who are, like me, voluntarily poor, should glory in it.
100-120 AD
The devil sends [...] his suggestions into souls to mingle them with man's thoughts.
1263-1264
The sentiment of justice [...] is the natural feeling of vengeance, applied through intelligence and sympathy, to those evils that harm both us and society at the same time.
1861
The Trinity in an Initial B
Probably 1387
Nothing characterizes a bad reign like flattery carried to excess [...].
1746
Often the wisest advice [...] comes to nothing for lack of courage when it comes to execution.
1636
This flight [from evil] is the resemblance to God, as much as it is in our power; and one resembles God through justice, holiness, and wisdom.
c. 253-270 AD
[...] it was an indispensable thing in the best of worlds, a necessary ingredient.
1759
Jacques-Louis Leblanc (1774–1846)
1823
Everything formidable becomes even more so when, a mistake having been made, there is no way to repair it, or when the repair is not within our power.
329-323 BC
What Brigand, what highway Robber [...] does not have a companion, a society of people of his kind [...] whose successes rejoice him, with whom he shares his prosperities?
1745
There is nothing which is, in itself, beautiful or ugly, worthy of love or hatred [...] these different qualifications depend solely on the sentiments and affections of each man [...].
1742
He who wants to learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance: one cannot learn to fly straight away!
1883-1885
Statuette of a bird
900 BCE - 100 BCE
Even contemplation is not without action.
c. 62-65
As societies become larger and [...] more condensed, individual diversities [...] emerge, stand out, and multiply.
1893
[...] the air, because it is invisible, is taken for empty space; but inasmuch as it is space, we conclude that it is a body [...].
1653-1662
For Epicurus, there is no good for man outside of himself; the only good he possesses in relation to the world is the negative movement of being free from this world.
1841
Statuette of a woman
3rd–1st century BCE
There are three operations which it is proper to bring together to better feel their difference. They are instinct, madness, and reason.
1746
If I become aware of this loss of my faculties, and I displease myself, how could I still find pleasure in living?
4th century BC
The rules for dispensing this new order would need to be extremely strict and constrained to give it authority.
1580
He who is one with this unity [...] regards his body as he would dust, and life and death as he would day and night.
4th century BC
The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara
ca. 1510
A religion that was clear would soon be finished; our sacred interpreters would have nothing to tell us if God had spoken too clearly.
1768
Let us call one of these two paths or methods 'anticipations of the mind,' and the other, 'interpretation of nature'.
1620
The most beautiful name in the world is the name Marie.
1926
All those whose lives are in the hands of others think more of what the one on whom their fate depends can do, than what he ought to do.
81 BC
Madonna and Child
mid-15th century