Every lover, after having finally satisfied his desire, experiences a prodigious disappointment and is astonished not to have found in the possession of this so ardently coveted object more pleasure than in any other sexual satisfaction.
1819
As for the other true realities, the soul contemplates them and consumes them... then it returns to its home.
1953
[It is shameful] that a statesman, whose public functions are exercised only through the agency of men, should be lazy and negligent in knowing his fellow citizens.
100-120 AD
True liberty is to have the freedom to dispose of one's person, actions, and possessions [...] according to the laws one lives under.
1690
Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Lady Agnes Anne Wrothesley
1791
I could not bear to hear people say coldly, with a little air of indulgent satisfaction: Yes, that is natural...
1741-1784
The sacred domain was declared inalienable by the jurists, so that today not a single coin of domain remains for the emperors.
1764
He who is one with this unity [...] regards his body as he would dust, and life and death as he would day and night.
4th century BC
Montaigne's younger brother [...] later married La Boétie's stepdaughter.
c. 1552-1553
Bronze bull
late 5th–early 4th century BCE
If it is not easy to define wit, one can at least decide [...] that it is a quality agreeable to others, & which [...] inspires joy in all those who are able to feel its worth.
1751
To say that a man gives himself gratuitously is to say an absurd and inconceivable thing; such an act is illegitimate and null, for the sole reason that he who does it is not in his right mind.
1762
It is [...] by becoming as concrete as possible that geometry has taken on the appearance of extreme abstraction.
17th century
Is a change from one being to another [...] a production? Is the change that takes place in magnitude an increase? [...] is the one that takes place in quality an alteration?
c. 350 B.C.E.
Bronze statuette of a goddess
1st–2nd century CE
what way is there to clearly explain the dispositions that the soul's operations leave within it, [...] since we do not even clearly know the nature of the soul?
1674-1675
I have the knowledge required to recognize people who are skilled in it.
c. 108 AD
Thus the smallest parts of the universe are regulated according to the order of the greatest perfection; otherwise the whole would not be.
1697
Never has a man lived who cared less for what we mean by the words glory and success.
1896
Bronze tweezers
ca. 2900–1050 BCE
When one places the center of gravity of life not in life but in the 'beyond'—in nothingness—one has deprived life of its center of gravity altogether.
1888
What then are we ourselves? We are that which is essentially us, we are the principle to which nature has given the power to triumph over the passions.
c. 253-270 AD
Every movement performed is always exactly represented by the quantity of extension traversed, for it is the same fact considered in two ways.
1817
I am sure that the future [...] will bear me this testimony, that I have never wronged anyone, nor ever made anyone more vicious.
4th century BC
Brackets, 2
6th century BCE
When the possessors of a privilege make concessions to those who are deprived of it, it is rarely for any other reason than because the latter acquire the power to extort them.
1869
[They seemed] to have taken on the task of solving this insoluble problem: namely, to govern by the majority, but against the majority's taste.
1893
...we ask those who might have any reason to complain about the coachmen, to please remember the mark of the carriage, and to report it [...] so that the necessary order may be given.
1662
We will command attention by promising to speak of important, new, extraordinary things, or of facts that concern the State or the audience itself.
86-82 BC
Bronze statuette of a camillus (attendant)
ca. 50 BCE–50 CE
Men are so avid for novelty that even the fortunate desire it as eagerly as those whose lot is to be pitied.
1513-1519
If we specialize, it is not to produce more, but to be able to live in the new conditions of existence that have been made for us.
1893
One needs colors to paint the night and words to praise silence.
1926
How many events it is enough to predict for them to take place.
1623
Bronze statuette of Mercury
1st century CE
It seems to me I hear a doctor say to his patient: Sir, do not have a fever.
1758
The opposition formed a heterogeneous mass, acting under the influence of varied interests, but was more or less led by the bourgeoisie.
1851-1852
When the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit [...], an abundance of peace is also shed in the souls of those who love God's law, and for them there is no stumbling block.
1263-1264
If agriculture were to fall in the agricultural provinces [...], the merchant provinces that caused their ruin would ruin themselves in turn.
1776
Marble statue of a kouros (youth)
ca. 590–580 BCE
An outburst, escaped in certain moments, can put the hero on the same level as the common man; it can even put the latter above the former.
1636
Regarding metaphysical minds of consummate penetration, one would have to be very inexperienced to believe that one could still add anything to their knowledge, or subtract anything from their opinion.
1763
If it were as easy to command the mind as it is to command the tongue, every power would reign in security, and no government would need to resort to violence.
1670
A revelation that were true [...] should be clear enough to be understood by all of humankind.
1766
Wall paintings on black ground: from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase
last decade of the 1st century BCE
No one is brought back to nature with difficulty, if he has not divorced himself from it.
63-64 AD
We may then well call them barbarians, in respect to the rules of reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity.
1580
Reason deceives us more often than nature.
1747
All perception is already memory.
1896
Surprised, or Infidelity Found Out
1732