Much is said of beautiful nature; there is not even a civilized people that does not pride itself on imitating it: but each believes they find the model for it in their own way of feeling.
1746
The unlimited confidence [...] and the excellent opinion we have [of someone] engage us to beseech them.
1498
Shall I dare to state here the greatest, most important, most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to waste it.
1762
Creation on God's part is an act not of self-expansion, but of withdrawal, of renunciation. God and all creatures is less than God alone. God has accepted this diminution.
1942
Limestone inscribed relief fragment
3900 BCE - 100 CE
When one has found the truth, one must stand firm in it; since curiosity is given to us only to lead us to discover it.
1674-1675
It would be impossible for there to be any failure in the world if the principles were not excellent; [...] there could be no disorder if there were not a primary and invariable rule.
c. 253-270 AD
If the definition is a discourse explaining what the being of a thing is [...], he who knows the being of a relative must necessarily know the being of its correlative.
c. 1270
This dogma of a fixed quantity of circulating currency was a monstrous error, contradicted by the facts of every day.
1865
Terracotta statuette of an actor
late 5th–early 4th century BCE
[...] if we consider the objects of the senses [...] as mere phenomena, we thereby acknowledge that a thing in itself underlies them, although we do not know what it is [...].
1783
All the accidents or qualities that our senses show us as existing in the world are not really there, but should only be regarded as appearances.
1772
So many men, so many boroughs, so many cities, so many nations sometimes endure a single tyrant, who has no power other than that which they give him.
c. 1552-1553
When men depart from the maxims of reason to embrace [...] an artificial life, no one can answer for what will please or displease them.
1751
Saint Michael the Archangel
1640s
Praise is only valuable when it comes from a third party.
4th century BC
A good [leader] never has weapons that are too short; what they lack in length, their bravery knows how to supplement.
1636
We cannot imagine other faculties than those we find in ourselves, as it is impossible to extend our conjectures beyond the ideas that come from sensation and reflection.
1689
Each individual depends more closely on society as labor is more divided, and, on the other hand, the activity of each is more personal as it is more specialized.
1893
Faience aegis pectoral with lion (?) head
664–30 BCE
The dream, on the contrary, is like something entirely foreign, like something which, like the external world, imposes itself upon us without our participation, and even against our will.
1836
Our perceptions being fleeting and transitory, their succession in our mind provides no means of dividing their duration [...] into distinct portions, separated in a fixed and precise manner.
1817
It is characteristic of our mind to form general propositions of knowledge from particular ones.
17th century
Yes, [he said], when they want to be greater than me; but those who work to increase my power, it is also just to let them share in it.
100-120 AD
Bronze jug
late 1st–2nd century CE
The works of God depict [...] the wisdom and power of the author [...], but they in no way trace his image.
1623
In Germany, democracy is a being of pure translation.
1896
The effect of virtue on our soul is no less necessary, nor less powerful, than that of beauty on our senses.
1757
In the great conflict, can one enjoy the heart or the mind?
1764
Virgin and Child Enthroned
ca. 1345–50
The sick must look upon their bed as an altar where they continually offer to God the sacrifice of their life, to give it back to Him when He pleases.
1643-1662
The oracles replied [...] that 'if Croesus went to war with the Persians, a great empire would be destroyed.' Which one? [...] The seers did not decide.
c. 350 B.C.E.
I regard bad conscience as the profound illness that man was bound to contract when he found himself finally enclosed within the walls of society and of peace.
1887
If I advance in age, I know that I must necessarily pay my tribute to old age; my sight will weaken, I will hear less well, my intelligence will decline [...].
4th century BC
Limestone funerary stele of a boy
3900 BCE - 100 CE
It is you who are being judged, rather than I.
c. 108 AD
Vanity is a component of almost all great European loves.
1772
Sadness [...] is a foolish and ugly ornament.
1580
The slave is a servant who does not argue and submits to everything without a murmur. Sometimes he assassinates his master, but he never resists him.
1835-1840
Bronze dagger
ca. 1750–1450 BCE
Not virtue itself, but the idea of virtue is innate.
1704
To say that the same internal causes produce the same effects is to suppose that the same cause can present itself several times on the stage of consciousness.
1889
All good maxims are in the world, [...] one only has to apply them; but that is very difficult.
1746
The question, 'Need I obey my conscience?' is as present to those who never heard of the principle of utility, as to utilitarians.
1861
Still Life with Flowers and Fruit
1866
Rashness is never allied with wisdom, and chance is not admitted to the counsels of prudence.
46 BC
It is one of Théophile's charms that he dared to be so personal and so sweet.
1926
Each person [...], according to the common tendency of human nature, will seek to pave a way towards monarchy.
1677
Of all excesses, the one to be feared most is the excess of happiness.
c. 64 AD
Limestone statuette of Zeus Ammon
early 5th century BCE