There are acts that are weak and obscure, others hidden, others powerful that radiate far.
c. 253-270 AD
It is not in passing, and tumultuously, that one must handle so serious and venerable a study. It must be a deliberate and settled action.
1580
I am not one of those for whom commitment takes the place of reason.
1695
The ideas of relation, such as that of 'father', are often clearer and more distinct than the ideas of the substances to which they belong, such as that of 'man'.
1689
Pair of bronze handles with satyrs
early 5th century BCE
The perfection of science would be to see all possible facts arise from a single cause.
1801
Little by little, everyone, following each other's example, will consume more and more.
1776
If crises first bring forth revolutions on the Continent, the cause of these is always to be found in England.
1850
I find no more worthy homage to the Divinity than that mute admiration which the contemplation of His works excites [...].
1782-1789
Terracotta warriors
6th century BCE(?)
God is love, and He is an object of love: the whole contribution of mysticism is there.
1932
You may find cities without walls, [...] without currency, [...] without theaters [...]. But you would not name one that does not recognize something sacred and divine [...].
1st Century A.D.
The bonds that exist between [man and his totem] are much more like those that unite members of the same family; animals and men are made of the same flesh [...].
1912
With tragedy, the Hellene lost faith in his own immortality; [...] not only faith in an ideal past, but also faith in an ideal future.
1872
Top of a marble funerary relief with portrait busts of a young man and an elderly woman
ca. 138–141 CE
There is no pleasure for [decent people] without propriety.
1732
A good [leader] never has weapons that are too short; what they lack in length, their bravery knows how to supplement.
1636
we will fulfill all the duties that humanity inspires in us.
1627
Does it make men better? Alas! We see that everywhere it divides them, it sets them at odds, it makes them intolerant, it forces them to be the executioners of their brothers.
1766
The Annunciation
1400
Take away ideas, you take away truths, for it is evident that truths are only the relationships that exist between ideas.
1707
In a civil dissension, [...] votes should be weighed, not counted.
54-51 BC
Where truth and nature are, there also is prudence; where truth and nature are, there also is confidence.
c. 108 AD
To be a 'great writer,' to take one's place on the summits, among the finest representatives of humanity, what a burden and how to accept it without trembling?
1926
Portrait of a Man
1741
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
Therefore, tend to your soul's health as a priority; let the health of the body come second.
63-64 AD
As many types of government, so many types of authority.
329-323 BC
I confess that it would be easier for me to concede matter and extension to the soul, than the capacity to move a body and be moved by it, to an immaterial being.
1643-1649
Painted limestone funerary slab with a soldier taking a kantharos from his attendant
2nd half of 3rd century BCE
'Where' (ubi) admits neither more, nor less, nor contrariety.
c. 1270
Neither intelligence nor pleasure can be the good, if they are lacking something.
c. 360 BC
It would be [...] glorious for any citizen to publicly expose a candidate's flaws, so that the people [...] could form a sounder judgment.
1513-1519
One of two things is true: either the thing one mocks deserves mockery, or it does not.
c. 1660
Charles de Saint-Radegonde, called Charles Coguin, Abbot of Anchin
ca. 1511–20
What a monstrous vice is this which does not even deserve to be called cowardice, which finds no name vile enough, which nature disavows having made and the tongue refuses to name?
c. 1552-1553
The characteristic feature of Wagner's thought is its astonishing unity: a unity that connects writings from different eras [...] through the commonality of the point of view.
1896
One of the greatest problems of education is to reconcile, under a legitimate constraint, submission with the ability to use one's freedom.
1797-1798
Amidst the apparent diversity of human affairs, it is not impossible to find a small number of generative facts from which all others derive.
1835-1840
Peasants Dancing
1651
This feeling, when disinterested, and connecting itself with the pure idea of duty [...] forms the essence of Conscience.
1861
It is our will and pleasure that the lanterns at the corners and in the middle of the streets [...] be preserved there, as is customary.
1662
It is a great dream that this One being dreams: a dream, but a dream of such a kind that all its characters dream it with him. Hence it is that everything is in everything, that everything fits with everything.
1836
However, enthusiasm will always be a kind of virtue.
1762
Bronze bowl from a thymiaterion (incense burner)
late 4th century BCE
Agree [...] that we often act according to what we want, but that we never want except according to what we feel, or according to what we think.
1746
Philosophy has but few true followers; and even over them it has only a very weak and very limited authority.
1742
Christ did not say: 'I am orthodoxy.' He said: 'I am the truth.'
1957
Simplicity in a subject and in an image is a perfection relative to the weakness of our mind.
1758
Monsieur de Bellefourière
1521