It is likely that the first virtue that made its appearance among men, and which gave some an advantage over others, was this one [valor].
1580
The sweetness of marriage and the tender cares of fatherhood are so many obstacles that divert men from high enterprises.
1620
It often happens that we are esteemed in proportion as we esteem ourselves.
1746
As [Plato] philosophized [...] in a place called the Academy, his followers kept the name Academics.
45 BC
Terracotta female head
late 3rd–2nd century BCE
Luxury consists [...] in things that [...] are, by their nature, reserved for the few to the exclusion of the many.
1776
A meal is not to be compared, it is to be eaten. Likewise, words [...] are eaten to the extent that they are edible, that is, insofar as they contain truth.
1957
There are two publics: the one on which a journalist can have some influence, and the other, the one that makes serious reputations [...], the one that judges the judges.
1926
It takes but a moment to admire; it takes a century to create admirable things.
1773
Chlorite pestle
ca. 1600–1050 BCE
Whenever reason is against a man, a man will be against reason.
1772
To classify crime among the phenomena of normal sociology [...] is to affirm that it is a factor of public health, an integral part of all healthy societies.
1895
Death only becomes honorable through that which is honorable: namely, virtue and disdain for external things.
63-64 AD
What are desire and joy, if not a will that consents to what pleases us? And what are fear and sadness, if not a will that turns away from what displeases us?
c. 253-270 AD
Portrait of a Man
1741
The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are familiar.
1859
Its members sanctioned, or rather restored, the obnoxious privileges of feudalism, thereby betraying the liberty and the interests of the peasantry.
1851-1852
The scaffold, the terror of the wicked, becomes the glorious stage where tolerance and virtue shine in all their splendor and publicly cover the sovereign majesty with shame!
1670
It is an effrontery or rather a kind of madness to praise oneself at every moment [...]. It is also to offend reason.
1674-1675
Portrait of a Woman
1560
For the greater convenience of the public, while waiting for all the routes to be established [...], one will be able to go in the same carriage from any neighborhood of Paris to the others.
1662
It is evident that the Mind does not know things immediately, but only by the intervention of the ideas it has of them.
1689
We need [...] a new health, a health that is more robust, sharper, more enduring, more audacious, and more joyful than any health has been hitherto.
1882
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood [...] by the masses.
c. 375 BC
Woman at a Balcony
1887–88
It is the fear of boredom that makes most of them act and think.
1758
[...] duration, whose essence is to flow ceaselessly, and to exist, consequently, only for a consciousness and a memory.
1890
There is no essential difference between a wooden image and an imaginative image [...] The adoration of the sculpted or painted image [...] is but the external, physical manifestation of the inner, spiritual adoration.
1841
Mercy, rarely used and with judgment, is a beautiful and singular virtue in a prince; but ordinary clemency without distinction [...] is the complete subversion of all order.
c. 1552-1553
Bronze serving fork
ca. 2nd–3rd century CE
One can say of a man that he is more clothed if he has several garments, and less clothed if he has fewer.
c. 1270
The king [...] seemed torn between the grief of not having been able to marry her off, and the pleasure of still keeping her.
1768
There is no room for either doubt or error in simple ideas; and this is a very important thing to note.
1805
...perfect health [...] is the foundation of all other goods one can have in this life.
1643-1649
Chalcedony amulet, thunderbolt
664–334 BCE
Once, [...] it was a great affair to be made a God; today, it is nothing.
1757-1758
Among democratic peoples, [men] are very close; their bodies touch constantly; their souls do not mingle.
1835-1840
It is the masterpiece of insight to understand another's heart; it is also the ultimate effort of self-mastery to keep one's own heart unknown to the most skilled scrutineers.
1636
The greatest genius, if not born a poet, cannot become one, or if nature [...] abandons him, he lays down the lyre, and does not flatter himself that he can supply, with the help of rules, that enthusiasm which is the sole principle of a divine harmony.
1742
Bronze phiale (libation bowl)
5th–4th century BCE
The public will look for [the author] in an edition, not his commentators.
1855
As soon as we approach a new domain, the previous principles are of no more help to us; fundamental laws of another kind appear [...].
1819
Reason is entirely mistaken about this concept [of cause]; it falsely takes it for its own child, [when] it is but a bastard of the imagination, which, impregnated by experience, has subjected certain representations to the law of association.
1783
Yes, truly, Ulysses accomplished thousands of noble deeds. Thousands has the sense of a great number, and it is in this sense that this expression is used here.
c. 335 BC
The Cellier Altarpiece
1511–12
Imagine two clocks or watches that are in perfect agreement.
1696
Beneath the multiple [...] distinctions, beneath the incessant [...] transformations, [...] lies a hidden law, [...] nature.
4th century BC
[Trials], as soon as they existed and Hercules found them, served to reveal and to exercise him.
c. 108 AD
If I elevate myself, through my temperance, my frugality, and my greatness of soul [...] I will rightly obtain the renown and glory of a great king.
100-120 AD
Man Weighing Gold
ca. 1515–20