There are in the nature of things two models, one divine and blessed, the other godless and wretched. Unjust men are unaware of this [...].
c. 253-270 AD
There is nothing so beautiful as truth: one must not claim to make it more beautiful by embellishing it with a few perceptible colors [...].
1674-1675
I am proof against everything, except your gaze.
Before January 1765
Their nature is much easier to conceive when we see them gradually come into being in this way, than when we consider them only as already made.
1637
Bronze serving fork
ca. 2nd–3rd century CE
Who among you, knowing and seeing that power is evil, would be ready to renounce power?
1876
When [our judgments] are flawed, it is always because of their relationship with previous judgments.
1805
Others do not so much impress upon things the image of their mind as that of their passions, never losing sight of the interest of their party [...].
1623
It is justice that preserves societies; and the just is identical with the proportional.
4th century BC
Head of Saint John the Evangelist
1818
Hurt by the too manifest contradictions of our opinions, I sought through so many errors the abandoned paths of the true.
1746
[It is] an admirable thing [...] that the same person could [...] succeed equally in two ways of writing that are of such a different nature.
1926
I see very well [...] that my thought [...] needs clarification.
1696
Before the storm is formed, one must relentlessly reach the port.
1636
Madonna and Child
mid-15th century
A miracle is the violation of [...] immutable, eternal laws. By this statement alone, a miracle is a contradiction in terms: a law cannot be both immutable and violated.
1764
'Our god is money, our religion is profit'.
1896
The influence of slavery extends [...] into the very soul of the master, and gives a particular direction to his ideas and tastes.
1835-1840
All past history shows that whenever such a depreciation of money occurs, the capitalists are eager to seize the opportunity to defraud the worker.
1865
Head of a comic figurine
late 4th–3rd century BCE
Corinth had always shown a deep love for liberty, and an equally strong hatred for tyranny: it had undertaken almost all its wars [...] not to dominate peoples, [...] but in the interest of the freedom of the Greeks.
100-120 AD
The notion we have of pure substance in general [...] is none other than that of a 'we know not what' which is entirely unknown to us, supposed to be the support of the qualities we perceive.
1689
It is upon [its] happy return that love breathes [...] a dormant and covered fire that winter concealed within our veins.
1546/1563
Everyone will very promptly find the solution to all the difficulties that might arise on this important matter.
1768
Limestone statuette of Zeus Ammon
4th century BCE
If the character of the first half of life is an unfulfilled yearning for happiness, that of the second half is the apprehension of misfortune.
1851
The laws of most countries are far worse than the people who execute them, and many of these laws owe their continued existence only to the rarity of their application.
1869
Truth is simple in its discourse: so it must not be complicated.
63-64 AD
[...] the enmity he bore towards our [religion] gave no counterweight to the scales of justice.
1580
The Coronation of the Virgin
1475
An old proverb says that it is easier to make a buffoon rich than to make him a gentleman.
81 BC
Why did you adorn yourself with what was not your own? Why did you call yourself a Stoic?
c. 108 AD
He who wishes a city to acquire a vast empire must use all his industry to fill it with inhabitants: without a numerous population, a city will never succeed in growing.
1513-1519
We do not properly create ideas; we only combine [...] those we receive through the senses. Invention consists in knowing how to make new combinations.
1746
Bronze oinochoe: olpe (jug)
6th century BCE
Human blood [...] is so sacred a thing that [...] it is very often used to consecrate the most respected instruments of the cult.
1912
Self-love, the different opposing interests [...], the discussions that result from them in society, have obliged men to establish the laws of justice, in order to preserve the advantages of mutual assistance and protection.
1751
It is by the one and same virtue of charity that we love God and our neighbor, with this sole difference that we love God for God's sake, and we love our neighbor and ourselves for God's sake.
1263-1264
[A political treatise deals with] the affairs that depend on the government of the sovereign powers.
1677
Haystacks: Autumn
ca. 1874
[He] considered life [...] as a state of perpetual oscillation and change [...], whereas death, a permanent state admitting neither more nor less, [...] did not seem to him suited to any other state of mind than a disposition of the same durable and immutable nature.
1827
It must be admitted that there are very sweet pleasures, and they come at a good price.
1741-1784
After eight years, I ceased to be preoccupied with life and death.
4th century BC
The memory will no longer be the object itself [...], it exists only for the person who evokes it, whereas the object is part of a common experience.
1919
Marble cinerary chest with lid
ca. 20–30 CE
How can one imagine something outside of nature? And [...] what means are there to transmit its idea to others?
1772
Misfortune is only relieved by a miracle.
1957
[The one] [...] who has never ceased his whole life to do useful and honest deeds, is truly the victor.
4th century BC
[The carriages] will only stop to let people get on and off at any place on the said route as desired...
1662
Joseph-Antoine Moltedo (born 1775)
ca. 1810