If there is an absolute government, it is that which is in the hands of the entire multitude.
1677
In every country, the prejudices of the great are the law of the small.
1758
Nations harm each other mutually [...] because they each deprive themselves of the advantages they provided one another through trade.
1776
If I perceive this loss of my faculties, and I become displeasing to myself, how could I still find pleasure in living?
4th century BC
A Bouquet of Flowers in a Crystal Vase
1662
And given that experience has shown that various inconveniences occurred when entire carriages were booked...
1662
[Witty remarks and bold actions] have often been like wings to suddenly reach the summit of greatness.
1636
The saying, 'he who knows little thinks himself great,' applies to me. [...] I was right to come and be instructed, otherwise the truly wise would have ended up laughing at me.
4th century BC
I cannot stand these [...] scales [...] where the actions of others weigh like lead, and our own are as light as feathers.
1741-1784
The Tears of Saint Peter
ca. 1612–13
Not virtue itself, but the idea of virtue is innate.
1704
As long as what we crave is absent, it seems to surpass all else; once we have it, we crave something else, and an equal thirst holds us.
1580
Born mortal, you gave birth to mortals: you, corruptible and passing matter [...], did you expect that from such fragile elements strength and immutability would be engendered?
37 AD - 41 AD
Liberty alone, men do not desire it, for no other reason, it seems, than that if they desired it, they would have it.
c. 1552-1553
Limestone inscribed relief fragment
3900 BCE - 100 CE
One cannot suffer admiration for antiquity to become the master of reason, and for it to be, as it were, forbidden to use one's mind to examine the sentiments of the ancients.
1674-1675
This universal and immoderate desire for public office [...] destroys, in each citizen, the spirit of independence, and spreads throughout the body of the nation a venal and servile disposition [...].
1835-1840
There must be something in the cause of the comic that is slightly detrimental [...] to social life.
1900
It seems likely that some dreamer [...], to make a usurpation more respectable, granted, on behalf of God, the faculty of curing scrofula.
1764
Statue of a man
6th century BCE or later
The natural sentiments, excited by the general appearances of things, are not easily destroyed by refined reflections on their common and imperceptible origin.
1751
All the movements we make without our will contributing to them [...] depend only on the conformation of our members [...] in the same way that the movement of a watch is produced by the sole force of its spring and the shape of its wheels.
1649
Who is to say that [morality] does not serve exclusively social ends to which the individual must be subordinated?
1893
As for good and evil, [...] who has come into the world without having the notion of it within them?
c. 108 AD
Rustic Interior
1632
The reputation they had in their lifetime has become inexplicable, for their talent is truly most mediocre.
1926
The term 'Protestant' was chosen by the Protestants [...] but Catholics call them 'heretics'.
1830-1831
This firm foundation [of utilitarian morality] is that of the social feelings of mankind; the desire to be in unity with our fellow creatures.
1861
Wisdom consists in knowing as much as one can about these divine, eternal, primitive, immutable phenomena; and philosophy is but the assiduous pursuit of this noble study.
c. 350 B.C.E.
Bathsheba at Her Bath
ca. 1700
[Descartes], the first among all men, found the true beginning of all Logic.
1817
I felt that a new reading [...] did me good: not only because it served to polish my style [...] but above all because it led me to restrain and conquer my passions.
45 BC
To get a clear idea of the elements of Natural Law and Politics, it is important to know the nature of Man.
1772
I am not surprised, [...] everyone values their life for what it is worth.
1512-1527
The Smoker
ca. 1623–25
One can easily account for everything when one allows oneself to imagine agents and laws of action at will.
1766
Direct slavery is the pivot of bourgeois industry [...]. Without slavery you have no cotton; without cotton you have no modern industry.
1847
May my lioness wisdom learn to roar with tenderness!
1883-1885
If [the soul] does not renounce love, it happens one day that it hears [...] silence itself as something infinitely more full of meaning than any answer, as the very word of God.
1951
Fragment of a terracotta plaque
7th century BCE
Truth or falsity are only found in the enunciation, as in a sign.
c. 1270
Perception is the first Faculty of the Soul that is occupied with our Ideas. It is also the first and simplest idea that we receive by means of Reflection.
1689
He was the object of general admiration, [...] as simple in his clothes, his equipages, and his table, as if he had lived in the Academy with Plato.
100-120 AD
We shape plants by cultivation, and men by education.
1762
Limestone horse with a rider
middle or 3rd quarter of the 6th century BCE
'Our god is money, our religion is profit'.
1896
Sight resembles touch: it operates in the light by transporting itself, so to speak, to the object, without the medium experiencing any affection.
c. 253-270 AD
Hurt by the too manifest contradictions of our opinions, I sought through so many errors the abandoned paths of the true.
1746
The condition [of advisors] is unfortunate [...] when they advise a present sacrifice whose advantages are certain and lasting but distant.
1623
In the Studio
1888