Each person can only truly understand and appreciate that which is homogeneous to them.
1851
There is undoubtedly infinitely more pleasure and more honor in being guided by one's own eyes than by those of others.
1674-1675
The devils themselves [...] preferred to return to burn in hell than to live in this world under the orders of such a woman.
1518-1527
For morality there is no need of an end to act well, and the law alone, which contains the formal condition of the use of freedom in general, is sufficient.
1793
Bronze phiale (libation bowl) with four swinging handles
ca. 550 BCE
It is only when we have understood how deeply [the artist] suffered [...] for an inaccessible ideal, that we begin to conceive who he was.
1896
It [the division of labor] has often been accused of diminishing the individual by reducing him to the role of a machine.
1893
But the object that excited the most compassion and regret [...] was [the son], overwhelmed with grief and bursting into tears.
100-120 AD
Churchmen are commonly reproached for their harshness; in them, it is an effect of the most sublime virtue; a good Christian must be perfectly insensitive.
1768
Madonna and Child with Saints Francis and Clare
ca. 1510
All that was fire in you will go to fire; all that was earth, to earth; all that was air, to air; all that was water, to water.
c. 108 AD
[Happiness] should never be considered acquired by man, until he has been seen to play the last act [...] of the comedy that is our existence.
1580
The salvation of the people is the supreme law to which all laws, divine and human, must be related.
1670
If you were once young, you are now—young in a better way!
1886
Limestone inscribed fragment
3900 BCE - 100 CE
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
Those to whom God has given religion by a feeling of the heart are blessed [...]. To those who do not have it, we can only give it by reasoning, while waiting for God to give it to them by a feeling of the heart [...].
1670
All anger is accompanied by a certain pleasure, that which comes from the hope of revenge.
329-323 BC
The proof that by remaining silent the church does not abandon its claims is that it always teaches the same doctrine in Rome.
1772
Terracotta statuette base
3rd century BCE
Pride, indeed, wants only to do its own will; humility, on the contrary, does the will of God.
1263-1264
It would be wrong to believe that the periodical press has always been entirely free in America; attempts have been made to establish something analogous to prior censorship [...].
1835-1840
Great thoughts come from the heart.
1747
To react violently against an invincible feeling is to inflict a double wear upon oneself: the pain, plus the reaction. None who do so live long.
4th century BC
A Jaguar Devouring a Deer
after 1840
Believe me, true joy is a serious thing.
63-64 AD
[...] the glory of having finally found the solution to the problem on which the greatest geniuses had built useless systems.
1738
Philosophical historiography [...] must differentiate between the mole of true philosophical knowledge that never ceases its work and the chattering phenomenological consciousness [...] of the subject who is the receptacle and energy of these developments.
1841
The exclusive company formed [...] to revive the ashes [of a colony] achieved nothing.
1770
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1795
Those who [...] asserted that nothing can be known with certainty, [propagate] a discouraging opinion.
1620
The most difficult temptation to resist, in such a life, is that of giving up thinking altogether: one feels so clearly that it is the only way to stop suffering!
1934-1942
Reverie seems to be nothing other than following certain thoughts for the pleasure one takes in them, without any other purpose, which is why it can lead to madness.
1704
Paternal power [...] is nothing other than the power that fathers and mothers have over their children, to govern them in a way that is useful and advantageous.
1690
Still Life with Jar, Cup, and Apples
ca. 1877
Before experience, there are the conditions that make experience possible.
1900
Each part of the air contains the entire visible object: now this cannot be explained by a corporeal affection, but by higher laws, proper to the soul [...].
c. 253-270 AD
Duration and movement are measured with the utmost precision, thanks to extension.
1817
If I can [...] by resorting to paper, make some honest man speak what I feel, my spirits, fed by this freedom, immediately regain new strength.
1574
William Forsyth (1749–1814)
ca. 1800
All selfish tendencies, the cult of self, the unjust preference for oneself [...] have their source and root in the current constitution of the relationship between man and woman.
1869
Prejudice in favor of custom has, at all times, been an obstacle to the progress of the arts.
1746
The path I take [...] is so little trodden, and so far from the ordinary route, that I did not think it useful to show it to everyone, for fear that weaker minds might believe they were permitted to attempt this way.
1641
Perhaps [...] it is out of benevolence that God grants me [...] the ability to end my life not only at the most suitable time, but also in the least painful way.
4th century BC
Limestone head of a girl
3rd century BCE
A well-formed opinion on a man's character leads one to judge what his actions might have been.
66 BC
Put all the lessons of young people into actions rather than words; let them learn nothing from books that experience can teach them.
1762
Without the protection of the gods, he would be quite forgotten.
1926
There is no difference between letting one's passion be seen, and lending certain weapons for others to make themselves our master.
1636
The Crucifixion
ca. 1325–30