I acted according to my conscience.
329-323 BC
Love—its means is war, and its foundation is the mortal hatred of the sexes.
1888
It is neither what we do, nor the events of our life that are our work: but what no one thinks to take as such: I mean our nature, our way of being.
1836
It is the things whose use makes their necessity felt that should be the rule for the employment of men [...].
1776
A Spanish Garden
1871
General well-being favors the stability of all governments, but particularly of democratic government, which rests on the dispositions of the greatest number [...].
1835-1840
What is not good is to abandon the Creator to live according to the created good, whether one wants to live according to the flesh, or according to the soul, or according to the whole man.
c. 253-270 AD
No one is more prone to mistakes than those who act only upon reflection.
1747
Better an end with horror than a horror without end.
1851/1852
Horse and rider
ca. 750–600 BCE
I call a fool the one who, having committed a folly, does not have the wit and care to smother it on the spot.
1636
It would be absurd to say that whoever writes in French thinks in French; character [...] does not transform as easily as language.
1926
I cannot grant that sin or evil is something positive, much less that anything could exist or happen against the will of God.
1661-1676
One of the most powerful causes that have hindered the progress of science and philosophy is temerity.
1620
Bronze rod tripod
ca. 1250–1050 BCE
If we do not find pleasant things, we shall at least find new things.
1759
'The dignity of humanity is placed in your [artists'] hands, keep it intact! With you it falls! With you it will rise again!'
1896
The love of glory and reputation is another spring of our machine, which gives much force to the moral sentiment; it is the passion of great souls.
1751
The soul [...] is the first act of an organized physical body.
1270
María Teresa, Infanta of Spain
mid-17th century
What is it to be exiled? Is it to be somewhere other than Rome?
c. 108 AD
It is hardly possible for an enemy to remain encamped with his troops around a place for a whole year.
1513
One must never give full consent except to propositions that appear so evidently true that one cannot refuse it without feeling an inner pain and secret reproaches from reason.
1674-1675
Ronsard and Baïf praised him.
c. 1552-1553
The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda)
ca. 1772
Any mixture whatsoever [...] absolutely requires measure and proportion, otherwise it is not a mixture, but a confusion.
c. 360 BC
It is extremely difficult to change the constitution of a city without using violence and fear.
100-120 AD
One must let the world run its course, and not claim to govern it. Otherwise, corrupted natures will no longer act naturally [...].
4th century BC
In a homogeneous mass, [...] nothing could give birth to the idea of time; duration only begins with a certain variety of effects.
1890
The Last Supper
ca. 1325–30
How could common sense admit a god who claims that one should make oneself unhappy, and who takes pleasure in contemplating the torments his creatures inflict upon themselves?
1766
One is affected differently in judging than in desiring; it is another act of our sensibility.
1817
The question therefore arises of a new order, compatible with the newly acquired freedoms, with the renewed sense of workers' dignity and camaraderie.
1934-1942
We form our idea of God by extending to infinity the ideas of knowledge, power, etc., that we find in ourselves through reflection.
1689
A Man with the Initials RH
1775
I will not erase your praise [...] because I love to praise; but I shall take great care not to be of your opinion.
1741-1784
There is no better way to come to the knowledge of our Passions than to examine the difference between the soul and the body.
1649
The pleasure which necessarily precedes the observation of a law [...] is pathological [...]; but that which is necessarily preceded by the law [...] belongs to the moral order.
1797-1798
Individuals can admire a person's courage without the act itself being tolerated in principle.
1893
Peacocks
1683
To say the same of a whole people is to suppose a people of madmen: madness creates no right.
1762
One does not realize the vitality of institutions that place right on the side of force; one does not know with what tenacity people cling to them.
1869
No wisdom has managed to conceive why our imagination can arouse in us such a vivid sadness, when reality itself cannot.
1580
He, it is said, is the wisest who knows for himself what ought to be done; the next place belongs to him who knows how to follow the wise counsel of another.
66 BC
Bronze handle
5th century BCE
It is [...] absolutely impossible for simple artisans, however skilled they may be, to perfect a new piece consisting of complicated movements, without the help of a person who, by the rules of theory, gives them the measurements.
1642-1645
There is only one essence of a thing, but there are several definitions that express the same essence, just as the same structure [...] can be represented by different scenographies [...].
1704
All power answers to a higher power.
c. 62 AD
The man without passions is incapable of the degree of application to which superiority of mind is attached.
1772
Spatula
3900 BCE - 100 CE