Upon due consideration of all these collective Ideas, [...] they are but artificial representations that the Mind draws.
1689
All men [...] are apes and imitators: vice is caught by contagion.
1772
A musician who writes and thinks was then nonsense to everyone; they cried out: he is a theorist who wants to transform art with subtle ideas, let him be stoned!
1876
It is a contemptible lightness and baseness of mind to believe blindly in the authority of men on subjects that depend on reason.
1674-1675
Bronze jug
ca. 6th century BCE
we flattered ourselves that we were not far from land, not doubting that the Sea [...] might contain within it islands and continents of which no one had yet heard.
1627
As mutual indifference has the effect of relaxing collective surveillance, the sphere of free action for each individual expands in fact, and little by little, the fact becomes a right.
1893
There are two ways of looking at beings; either as distinct entities, or as all being one in the great whole.
4th century BC
Hope makes more dupes than skill.
1746
Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer
1597
With regard to great faults, one does not suppress the knowledge of them; one only suspends it for a time.
1636
Safeguard by all means what is yours; do not covet what does not belong to you. Integrity is yours; self-respect is yours.
c. 108 AD
Belief therefore essentially means trust; the primary origin is not fear, but an assurance against fear.
1932
Who could ever [...] strip himself of his power in favor of another [...] to the point of ceasing to be a man?
1670
Frescoes from the Villa Stati-Mattei
1501
The brain, with its function of knowing, is basically just a lookout established by the will, to serve those of its ends which are located outside.
1819
[This figure] leaves to the listener himself the task of guessing what the orator does not say.
86-82 BC
There is no contradiction [...] in reducing the imagination to the human body, and in making it, for all that concerns the world, the sole instrument of knowledge.
17th century
Fortune, which delights in making the decision of the most important affairs depend on a single moment, showed on this occasion the weight and influence of time.
100-120 AD
Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904)
1861
Is opinion always true, or sometimes true and sometimes false?
c. 360 BC
God made each of these two substances from the beginning of such a nature that, by following only its own laws [...], it nevertheless agrees with the other [...].
1696
[Certain alliances] bring more the glamour of a great name than actual help.
1513-1519
I do not see a great advantage in succeeding, and I see a very real disadvantage in failing to succeed.
1765-1769
Portrait of a Dwarf
1525
The word 'to succeed' was obviously missing.
c. 1552-1553
Thus, the court comes to the jury, instead of drawing the jury to it, as in France.
1835-1840
The attention our century pays to everything that can increase the reach of man's sight allows us to hope that it will turn [...] towards the most important discoveries.
1755
Today, religion has taken the place of philosophy; it keeps an eye on all our conduct: it has the right to regulate our actions, our words, even our thoughts and our inclinations.
1751
Terracotta head from a statue
ca. 525–500 BCE
[The will] consists in desiring to experience or to avoid any way of being.
1817
Whatever price is put on an empire, it is never too dearly bought…
62-65 AD
It belongs to Socrates alone to meet death with an ordinary face, to familiarize himself with it and make a game of it.
1580
As long as the daily press was anonymous, it appeared as the organ of nameless, innumerable public opinion. It was the third power in the state.
1850
Bronze handle of a hydria (water jar)
ca. 460–450 BCE
I have rights over you; remember that I have your word; I am your savior. No, no, forgive me, I irritate you; I will silence all that [...], my tears only, the only right left to the wretched.
1968
whenever a proposition is inconceivable, one must suspend judgment [...], but examine its contrary; and if one finds the contrary to be manifestly false, one can boldly affirm the first, however incomprehensible it may be.
circa 1658
We do not call an action wrong unless we mean to imply that the person who has committed it ought to be punished in some way or other [...].
1861
It is by limiting one's being that one possesses it entirely.
1926
George IV (1762–1830), When Prince of Wales
1773
[Freedom of thought] must be repressed with the greatest rigor; the Priests are paid to think, the faithful have nothing to do but to pay handsomely those who think for them.
1768
Here is a very clear example of the errors into which one falls [...] when speaking of an art whose principles one does not know.
1746
No greater affinity can be imagined than that between beauty and love.
c. 253-270 AD
[...] as our knowledge comes to us from the senses, the least sensible things are also the least known to us.
c. 1270
Madonna and Child with Saints
1607
We can only know the use of our organs after having employed them. Only long experience can teach us to make the most of ourselves [...].
1762
Man alone has one [a face].
Mid-fourth century BC and 322 BC
When a nation knows the arts, when it is not subjugated and transported by foreigners, it easily emerges from its ruins, and always recovers.
1756
[He] was truly one of those all-too-rare men who, by giving everything within them until nothing is left, thereby show themselves to be related to genius.
1896
Limestone statuette of Zeus Ammon
4th century BCE