he invited, by public proclamation, all the Syracusans to come with iron tools to demolish the fortresses of tyranny.
100-120 AD
That dishonest man has more than I! [...] It's because from the point of view of money, he is better than you; for he flatters, he is shameless, he works into the night.
c. 108 AD
There is no good but the true, but that which invites, which entices, is only plausible: it steals, it solicits, it carries away.
63-64 AD
Instead of the apotheosis of Reason, we have made another of Instinct; and we call everything instinct which we cannot establish on a rational basis.
1869
Mirope Savati Gaye
1865
The creation of the world means that it is but a phantom, a nullity. With the beginning of a thing, its end is also necessarily posited.
1841
[...] if there is no such evidence, this teaching is called persuasion; it produces in the listener only that which is solely in the opinion of the speaker.
1772
Where will I find these connections, if not in the study of myself and the knowledge of men [...]?
1746
In the case [of an abstract materialism], matter is the analogue of God, for it is conceived within the same framework and merely takes the place of God.
1841
Portrait of a Young Boy
1591
Must we therefore entrust the practice of all virtues of this class to the sure, though blind, instinct of feeling and taste?
1751
This more or less keen need that all mediocre men have to console themselves for their nullity, by depreciating the greatest geniuses, and by curiously seeking out their faults [...].
1760
To say that there may be an order that we do not see is to provide not proof that this order exists, but a reason not to deny its existence.
1752
Everything changes, nothing perishes.
1623
The Proposal
1872
What is most striking [in democracies] is not the extraordinary greatness of a few industrial enterprises, but the countless multitude of small ones.
1835-1840
To see others suffer does one good, to make others suffer even more so — this is a hard truth, but an old, mighty, human, all-too-human one.
1887
...an analysis of political and social oppression, of its permanent causes, its mechanism, its current forms.
1934
Why not let a woman believe you admire her when you only desire her?
1926
Portrait of a Woman
1785
A free judgment offends the ears of the great.
1574
Pity is a vicious passion to the Stoics; they want us to help the afflicted, but not to bend and sympathize with them.
1580
What the faithful truly gives to his god is not the food he places on the altar, nor the blood he lets flow from his veins: it is his thought.
1912
It is more natural to look for the corruptor in the one who fears being condemned, than in the one who fears seeing the other acquitted.
66 BC
Limestone statuette of Geryon
probably early 5th century BCE
A reasonable man sees only emptiness, nothingness, and folly [in these chimeras].
17th century
He who loves himself instead of loving God does not truly love himself, for since he cannot live by himself, by loving only himself he condemns himself to death.
1263-1264
If the argument [that all men are born under a government] is correct, I ask, how did the monarchies in the world become legitimate?
1690
There is no law in nature for the annihilation of any being, because nothingness has nothing beautiful or good, and the author of nature loves his work.
1674-1675
Fragment of a limestone naiskos (?)
ca. 5th century BCE
The thefts, murders, and accidents that happen daily in our good city of Paris, for lack of sufficient light in the streets [...].
1662
Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.
c. 375 BC
It would be good to have private individuals capable of bearing the necessary costs. For a powerful lord would make himself the sole master of the affair, once he saw its success.
1675
[One must ensure that citizens] enjoy only that credit which can be useful and not harmful to liberty.
1513-1519
Limestone inscribed relief fragment
3900 BCE - 100 CE
With his ears full of music and his mouth full of delicacies, the upstart is not happy. The worry of maintaining his position makes him like a beast of burden endlessly climbing the same slope.
4th century BC
One only has heartfelt esteem for one's equals.
1772
I seek right and reason, and do not dispute facts.
1762
The ultimate goal of any love affair [...] is, in reality, superior to all other goals of human life [...]. For it is nothing less than the composition of the future generation that is decided there.
1819
Head of marble colossal female statue
17th century?
[Labors] for which a wage is the price [...] rob the mind of all activity and all elevation.
c. 350 BCE
The markets make the law for the government.
1776
[...] violence and suspicion are things contrary to my nature.
1643-1649
There is no difference between letting one's passion be seen, and lending certain weapons for others to make themselves our master.
1636
Domestic Scene
1775
If [the propositions of a syllogism] were perfectly equal, one would say nothing more than the other, and we would be no more advanced at the third than at the first.
1817
Sensation has for its general condition that the universal animal be sympathetic to itself; without this, how could one thing partake in the power of another thing from which it is very distant?
c. 253-270 AD
The fate that actually befalls us rarely resembles the one we promised ourselves; at every step we take, we find our expectations disappointed.
1760
Visual space and tactile space.
1896
Bronze statuette of Tyche/Fortuna
ca. 1st century BCE–1st century CE