Of Mixtion where there is total penetration.
c. 253-270 AD
Those who know nature do not try to express it in words; and those who try, thereby show that they do not know.
4th century BC
One cannot analyze enthusiasm when one experiences it, since then one is not master of one's reflection.
1746
It is the mark of a wise man to anticipate these declines [...] without waiting for his turn to experience them abruptly.
1636
Bronze pendant in the form of a paired couple
8th century BCE
Believing herself to be his absolute mistress, she gave him her orders without consideration or pity; and if he refused her anything, she did not hesitate to overwhelm him with reproaches.
1518-1527
But what can be done to make children attentive? Let them have an interest in being so.
1772
The contradiction in the existence of God.
1841
A philosopher becomes attached to a favorite principle [...] at once he wants to subject the entire universe to it, & reduce all phenomena to it; which throws him into forced reasonings, & into countless absurdities.
1742
Margaretha van Clootwijk (born about 1580/81, died 1662)
1639
The located thing and the place are in an adequate relation.
c. 1270
The use of maxims is fitting for an old man, on account of his age and provided he applies them to subjects of which he has experience.
329-323 BC
The self, infallible in its immediate findings, feels free and declares it; but as soon as it tries to explain its freedom, it no longer perceives itself except by a kind of refraction through space.
1889
To instinctively choose what is harmful to us, to be seduced by 'disinterested' motives, that is almost the formula for decadence.
1888
Odalisque in Grisaille
ca. 1824–34
[...] he who understands what a body is, understands it as a compound of parts outside one another, some high, others low, some to the right, others to the left, a compound that is long, wide, deep [...].
1653-1662
Everything that is done, or that happens anew, is [...] a Passion with regard to the subject to which it happens, & an Action with regard to the one who makes it happen.
1649
It is your soul you must change, not the climate.
63-64 AD
It is a political law of nature that those who are under any power of ancient origin never begin by complaining of the power itself, but only of its oppressive exercise.
1869
Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara
early 1480s
This poetry gives me the impression of a delicate and clean trellis stretched over a known azure that I love...
1926
Truthfulness in statements that one cannot avoid is the formal duty of man towards everyone, whatever the serious disadvantage that may result from it [...].
1797
This council shows in every way how much things change according to the times.
1756
Wherever, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.
1835-1840
Two marble portrait heads from a relief
ca. 13 BCE–5 CE
It is not our senses that deceive us, but our will that deceives us through its hasty judgments.
1674-1675
Nothing is simpler or more necessary [...] than to leave your house when you do not approve of my staying there.
1782-1789
This force [...] is itself without cause, and consequently inexplicable.
1620
Such keen resentment for the refusal of a position [...] stems from a violent desire to obtain it.
100-120 AD
Limestone statuette of a male votary (worshipper)
mid-6th century BCE
[Theological quarrels] are very useful to the Church; when one argues about the form, one does not argue about the substance.
1768
A harvest of scents and flowers, perfuming the air and the earth.
1546/1563
Depending on whether [our] idea or perception is more or less detailed, [...] more or less in conformity with the reality of things, the subsequent judgments we make [...] will be very different.
1805
If, in these cases, the mere will of God is not a sufficient reason for acting in one particular way rather than another.
1715-1716
Bronze statuette of Mercury
1st century CE
To have begun to take great pleasure in Cicero is to have already made great progress.
45 BC
We take great care to always maintain around our souls the garment of carnal and social thoughts; if we were to cast it aside for a moment, we would have to die of shame.
1942
When someone violates the law of nature, he thereby declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason [...] and so he becomes dangerous to mankind.
1690
Does he who enjoys this peace, not promulgated by Caesar [...] but promulgated by God himself with the help of reason, need anything else when he is alone?
c. 108 AD
Marble relief fragment with male torso
ca. 1st century BCE
Aesthetic pleasure arises from an exercise of the faculty of knowledge, independent of the will.
1819
The face of the entire universe, which remains always the same, although it changes in an infinity of ways.
1661-1676
Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.
c. 375 BC
One does everything without suspecting a thing, when one is king.
1819
The Mass of Saint Basil
1746
In the case [of an abstract materialism], matter is the analogue of God, for it is conceived within the same framework and merely takes the place of God.
1841
The most ridiculous and boldest hopes have often been the cause of extraordinary successes.
1746
I am one of those over whom imagination has great sway. [...] I would gladly spend my life in the company of healthy and cheerful people.
1580
These two drivers of conduct [egoism and altruism] have been present from the beginning in all human consciousnesses.
1893
Saint Nicholas of Bari
mid-1430s