Quotes · Skopia

215 quotes

In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain... And the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan · 1651

★ 9.6

Poem · Philosophical literature

And with the guts of the last priest Let's wring the neck of the last king.

Denis Diderot

1772

★ 9.6

Philosophical literature

I think, therefore I am.

Rene Descartes

Discourse on Method · 1637

★ 9.1

Poem

Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blessed.

Alexander Pope

An Essay on Man · 1733

★ 8.8

Novel · Satire

If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?

Voltaire

Candide · 1759

★ 7.4

Scientific literature

Moreover, in a system of two bodies mutually acting upon each other, since the differences between their centres and the common centre of gravity of both are reciprocally as the bodies, the relative motions of those bodies, whether of approaching to or of receding from that centre, will be equal junong themselves. Therefore since the changes which happen to motions are equal and directed to contrary parts.

Isaac Newton

Principia · 1687

★ 7.3

Epigram · Philosophical literature

The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.

Blaise Pascal

Pensees · 1662

★ 7.3

Treatise · Political literature

Where-ever Law ends, Tyranny begins.

John Locke

Two Treatises of Government · 1690

★ 7.2

Political literature · Philosophical literature

No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan · 1651

★ 7.1

Economic literature · Philosophical literature

Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.

Adam Smith

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 7.1

Essay · Philosophical literature

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

Immanuel Kant

1784

★ 7.1

Essay · Political literature

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Benjamin Franklin

1755

★ 7.1

Political literature

A state without some means of change is without the means of its own conservation.

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790

★ 7.0

Philosophical literature

For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

Francis Bacon

Novum Organum · 1620

★ 7.0

Epigram · Philosophical literature

God is, or He is not. But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separates us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager?... If you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

Blaise Pascal

Pensees · 1662

★ 7.0

Poem

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Alexander Pope

An Essay on Criticism · 1711

★ 7.0

Novel · Satire

I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?

Voltaire

Candide · 1759

★ 7.0

Poem

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Alexander Pope

An Essay on Criticism · 1711

★ 7.0

Speech · Political speech

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Edmund Burke

1784

★ 7.0

Political literature

Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790

★ 7.0

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