How many there are still who seek Jesus only to obtain temporal favors? [...] scarcely are any found who seek Jesus for His own sake.
1263-1264
[...] if you grant divinity to such people, who the devil will recognize yours?
1757-1758
It is not the body as a body that produces [passion]; it is the body as an object.
c. 1660
We must [...] not count the rules, but group them into classes [...], according to whether they relate to the same sentiment or to different sentiments.
1893
Portrait of a Young Woman
1603
Decency, or the observance of the regard due to the age, sex, station, and character of a person, may be counted among the qualities that are agreeable to others and deserve to be approved.
1751
The revolution [...] made the middle class a theoretically predominant class; [...] but, in practice, the supremacy of this class was far from being established.
1851-1852
If those who do me the honor of persecuting me [...]
1731-1735
When [Americans] do not speak to one another, it is because they are not in the mood to talk, and not because they believe it is in their interest to be silent.
1835-1840
Spatula
3900 BCE - 100 CE
The cruelty of the multitude is directed at those it suspects of wanting to usurp the common good; that of the prince pursues all those he regards as enemies of his private good.
1513-1519
The Soul in that state is but [...] above the condition of a Mirror which, constantly receiving diverse Images or ideas, retains none of them.
1689
'Reason' at any price appears as a dangerous power, a power that undermines life.
1888
All abstraction is but the suppression of certain manifest ideas [...]. One can therefore call abstraction a negative attention, that is, a real action opposed to that by which the representation becomes clear.
1763
Bronze phiale (libation bowl)
5th–4th century BCE
The human heart is such that any oppression brings it down, and any excitement lifts it up. [...] Proud of its freedom, and letting no one bind it, such is the human heart by nature.
4th century BC
It is no longer time to kick when one has let oneself be shackled. One must manage one's freedom prudently; but once one has submitted to the obligation, one must abide by the laws of common duty [...].
1580
One has great reason to take time to deliberate before undertaking things of importance.
1643-1649
The services an envious person receives from people favored by Fortune are for them a cause of displeasure.
c. 72-126 AD
Bronze jug
ca. 6th century BCE
Works of youth found in drawers rarely enhance an author's stature.
1926
Truth exists for us, and we are capable of reaching it with certainty. [We must know] the means that lead us to it, and the causes that lead us away from it.
1805
To finally know if one can indeed know anything, it was necessary, instead of arguing on this point, to decide it by experience.
1620
Abundance of speech [...] are no small advantages [...] when they are governed by sound judgment, a wise and moderate mind.
86-82 BC
Limestone inscribed box fragment
3900 BCE - 100 CE
Who speaks with affectation, if not one who wishes to be a tasteless speaker?
63-64 AD
It would be supremely absurd for the one who pursues a goal to achieve it less than the one who does not bother with it.
c. 108 AD
By the number and beauty of the ideas that abbreviated expressions awaken [...], they have the advantage of striking the soul in an admirable way; and are, for this reason, what is called sublime.
1746
Perhaps one should abide by the author's judgment, and not needlessly increase the mass of documents [...] that he himself deemed negligible.
1896
A Man with the Initials RH
1775
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
Extraordinary actions can only come from a heart that is also extraordinary.
1636
[...] by the mere fact that we speak, [...] we fail to completely translate what our soul feels: thought remains incommensurable with language.
1889
This desire [to be a despot] stems from the love of pleasure, and consequently from human nature itself.
1758
Cymbal
7000 BCE - 330 CE
...will continue every half a quarter of an hour; which will be executed better and better...
1662
The mind must judge all things according to its inner lights, without listening to the false and confused testimony of its senses and its imagination.
1674-1675
Students do not learn for the sake of knowledge and insight, but to be able to chatter and put on airs.
1905
Let us only win peace and not worry that it be poor: if we have war, nothing is enough; if we have peace, nothing will be lacking.
c. 1552-1553
Lead figure of a woman
late 7th–early 6th century BCE
There is only one essence of a thing, but there are several definitions that express the same essence, just as the same structure [...] can be represented by different scenographies [...].
1704
The less an artist thinks of himself, the more he thinks of his workers.
1741-1784
Each thing [...] must be judged by its own special sense and not by a foreign one.
c. 350 B.C.E.
An imperfect reason is far above an absence of reason.
1746
Beach Scene
1883
If a [dissenting] opinion is right, [others] are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if it is wrong, they lose an almost equally great benefit: the clearer perception of truth, produced by its collision with error.
1859
Each phenomenon is the sign of another phenomenon, and by virtue of this universal coordination, the stars indicate future events.
c. 253-270 AD
[...] it is not the truth, it is the image that excites the passion: a well-acted tragedy affects as much as the sight of a murder.
1772
The woman who wishes for a child [...] gets him, but she dies and the child is handed over to a stepmother.
1947
Marble fragment of an Ionic column capital from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis
ca. 300 BCE–early 2nd century CE