There is nothing false, nothing unworthy of being said and recommended in writing for times to come.
1574
It is the same innovation that reduced physics to geometry, and which founded it on comparisons with the phenomena made familiar to us by common experience [...].
17th century
[An institution] should have no portion of the legislative or executive power, but its own power is for that very reason the greater: for, while it can do nothing, it can prevent everything.
1762
All good maxims are in the world, [...] one only has to apply them; but that is very difficult.
1746
Grainfields
mid- or late 1660s
To be honest, one must therefore join the nobility of the soul to the enlightenment of the mind.
1758
If you are practicing true philosophy, I am glad. For that is true health.
63-64 AD
This is not courage, it is recklessness; courage [...] scorns fatigue and danger for a useful motive, [...] recklessness braves fatigue without reason.
86-82 BC
The great naturally know all things; they are always right, even when they decide on questions of which they have no knowledge.
1674-1675
Portrait of a Woman
1785
Adversity [...] is close to a good outcome when it becomes extreme.
1636
Syllogisms made from simple propositions are better understood than those made from compound propositions [...]
c. 1270
What do we gain by thinking this way? [...] Calm, security, freedom.
c. 108 AD
The object [...] always remains unknown in itself; but if the connection of representations [...] receives a universal value [...], the object is determined by this relation, and the judgment is objective.
1783
Saints Matthew and Francis
ca. 1435
Every time they take up arms, [nations] destroy a stock of wealth that they would have put into circulation [...].
1776
This flight [from evil] is the resemblance to God, as much as it is in our power; and one resembles God through justice, holiness, and wisdom.
c. 253-270 AD
The social subordination of women stands out as an isolated fact in the midst of modern social institutions; it is the only relic of an old intellectual and moral world destroyed everywhere else [...].
1869
By substituting the word Priests for that of God, Theology becomes the simplest of sciences. [...] there are no true Atheists, since, unless one is an imbecile, one cannot deny the existence of the Clergy.
1768
Statuette of a horseman, 3
7th–6th century BCE
Above all, we should ensure that children do not use words to which they do not associate any clear notion.
1909
When two weights are applied to the same mechanism, the condition [...] for it to remain at rest is that among the possible displacements [...] there is none that causes the common center of such weights to be lowered.
1663
There is indeed a lake in me, a solitary lake which is sufficient to itself; but the torrent of my love carries it along [...] to the sea!
1883-1885
As the gods acquire more knowledge and authority, they become more fearsome.
1757
Madame la Comtesse de Boufflers and Thérèse
mid-1760s
It is human nature to cling more to the body than to the spirit, and to be more sensitive to present needs than flattered by future advantages, which are thereby always uncertain.
1764
[The] real development, the object of science, must be known through the construction of its concept, [...] against the false evidences of representation, the kingdom of ideology.
1841
Instead of a transmigration of the soul, there is transformation, envelopment or development, and finally a flux of the body of that soul.
1704
How many opportunities for grandiloquence that one never refuses without the greatest and most exquisite taste!
1741-1784
Portrait of a Young Man
1470s
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
To sleep is to lose interest. We sleep in the exact measure in which we lose interest.
1919
He was not a weaver, he was an embroiderer. He needed a theme, he needed a canvas.
1926
The extension of bodies [...] has an inestimable advantage: it is extremely divisible and invariable. [...] This is what makes it eminently measurable.
1817
Silver bust of Serapis
2nd century CE
A man who takes the trouble to elaborate an apology for slavery does not love justice. The century in which he lives makes no difference.
1943
In science, the human mind obeys the action of sensation [...]; whereas, in faith, it obeys the action of the soul, which is the nobler agent.
1623
Dust does not cling to a perfectly clear mirror; if it clings, it is because the mirror is damp or greasy.
4th century BC
If I advance in age, I know I will necessarily have to pay my tribute to old age; my sight will weaken, my hearing will diminish, my intellect will decline...
4th century BC
Limestone statuette of a male votary (worshipper)
mid-6th century BCE
One must not ask a question either after the conclusion or as a conclusion, unless the truth is fully in our favor.
329-323 BC
I find, in many things, more order in my morals than in my opinion, and my appetites less debauched than my reason.
1580
Such has been the abuse of this title against adversaries, and how the credulity of the half-learned has been imposed upon, who, without examining, are duped at first glance.
17th century
No societies have yet been seen where conditions were so equal that there were no rich or poor; and, consequently, no masters and servants.
1835-1840
Portrait of a Woman
1838
The individual is socialized [...] either because, having no individuality of his own, he merges with his fellows, or because he depends on them to the very extent that he is distinguished from them.
1893
[The separation of executive and federative powers] could only bring, sooner or later, misfortune and ruin to a state.
1690
Children must, from the most tender age, be sensitive to glory, be saddened by reprimands, and take pride in praise.
100-120 AD
Those who are born in a republic must [...] seek to distinguish themselves first by some brilliant deed.
1513-1519
Man in a Turban
1632