I desire neither reputation nor fortune, because these things do not bring happiness.
4th century BC
[The author] lets his pen wander at the whim of his imagination.
1762
Poles, Czechs and Germans.
1848
Nothing prevents a thing which does not have in its nature the reason for another thing, from nevertheless being able to have it from another cause.
1270
Upper part of a female limestone votary
2nd or 3rd quarter of the 6th century BCE
Chance is but a word, and the need they have of it to build their systems proves how necessary it is to recognize a first principle.
1755
If morality is one way or another at a given moment, it is because the conditions in which people then live do not allow it to be otherwise.
1893
Irresolution seems to me the most common and apparent vice of our nature.
1580
What does not kill me makes me stronger.
1888
Marble female figure
3200–2700 BCE
if you impose [your beliefs] on those who do not find them conformable [...], you yourself are a heretic, if for dogmas that cannot be fundamental, you cause a separation.
1686
Consent to tell yourself the truth: you have done nothing to be it, and they have done everything.
c. 108 AD
The role of our body is to screen from consciousness everything that would be of no practical interest to us, everything that does not lend itself to our action.
1919
The necessity of lighting the streets for a longer period of time was soon felt.
1662
Marble cornice fragment
2nd century CE
Empirical judgments, if they have objective validity, are judgments of experience; but those that have only subjective validity are mere judgments of perception.
1783
There are no customs, however innocent and reasonable they may be, that cannot be made odious or ridiculous, when judged by a model unknown to their authors.
1751
[These distinctions are] so many new facts of which I am just as certain as of the first general fact, I feel; and I am certain of them in the same way; that is, because I feel them.
1817
All very ancient events are uncertain, and it is not without danger that one writes the history of more modern times.
1623
Lead figure, possibly of a skeleton
possibly 4th century BCE
The source of inspiration remains forever hidden from us [...]. Logic loses its rights, and if a necessity drives genius to produce, the law of that necessity remains within itself.
1896
Truth is nothing other than a real relation, either of equality or of inequality.
1674-1675
Our soul will have cause to rejoice when, freed from the darkness in which it struggles, it can [...] be wholly filled with the great light.
63-64 AD
Everyone shall be bound to envy the happiness of others, and consequently to cause them all the annoyances within his power.
16th century
Statuette of a runner
7000 BCE - 30 BCE
Since many people are dominated by the lure of profit [...], it is a cause for fear to be at the mercy of another.
329-323 BC
What [...] color, race, religion, or nationality [...] are for some men, sex is for all women; it is a radical exclusion from almost all honorable occupations.
1869
If quickness of mind alone should not command in chief, it can at least command in second.
1636
In these kinds of societies, the imagination of the poor is cast towards the other world; the miseries of real life constrain it, but it escapes them and seeks its pleasures elsewhere.
1835-1840
The Flight into Egypt
1470s
There is a difference between apposition, mixtion, temperation, and confusion.
c. 253-270 AD
Such excuses, if they were admitted, would leave the greatest crimes unpunished.
86-82 BC
It is much better to be entirely delivered from a false hope than to be uselessly sustained by it.
1643-1649
[Hope] makes them lose sight of present happiness; it renders them useless to society; it makes them believe [...] that God will reward in heaven their uselessness, their dark moods, [...] their idleness.
1766
Portrait of a Woman
1790
This circumspection [in not changing government] is a maxim of policy and not a rule of law.
1762
Justice [...] means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns.
c. 375 BC
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
To love men, one must expect little from them.
1758
Diana
ca. 1760
If there are foolishly credulous writers, people devoid of common sense [...] the copies should not be so rare; a single one would suffice to resolve the question.
17th century
Nothing is beautiful but the truth, the truth alone is lovable.
1819
What is there that one cannot find in the knowledge of man?
1746
Great sovereigns are necessarily as rare as great artists or great scientists.
1926
The Crucifixion
ca. 1480
Purity is the power to contemplate defilement.
1947
[...] fearing [...] the instability of fortune, which often raises [someone] from the most deplorable situation to the height of prosperity in an instant.
100-120 AD
To be always free, must one always be irresolute?
1686
Allow [love] to lead you from the land of chimeras to the land of desires.
1718-1778
Parochialstrasse in Berlin
1831