Yesterday ... A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, 'that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. (July 3, 1776)
It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones. (August 10, 1798)
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. (February 1775)
Our cause is just ... being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves. (1775)
Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. (36 AD)
For it befits the well-ordered state and the tranquillity of our times that each individual be allowed, according to his own choice, to worship the Divinity. (313 AD)
All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab. (630)
Therefore the good man, although he is a slave, is free; but the bad man, even if he reigns, is a slave. (appx. 400 AD)
There is a saying among children, that 'Sometimes one is hanged for speaking the truth.' (February 23, 1431)
I have slain the English; I have mortally opposed the English King; I have stormed and taken the towns and castles which he unjustly claimed as his own. (August 23, 1305)
In the space of seven years I have succeeded in accomplishing a great work and uniting the whole world in one Empire. (1213)
Presently they descried people, naked, and the Admiral landed in the boat, which was armed, along with ... Vincent Yanez, ... captain of the Nina. (October 12, 1492)
I…declar[ed] future causes of the 'common advent'…Yet lest whatever human changes…come should scandalise...[it] is written in nebulous form rather than clear prophecy. (1555)
We thought that the clergy of our realm had been our subjects, but ...all the prelates ... make an oathe to the pope ... so that they seem to be his subjects, and not ours. (1532)
If you knew how much work went into it, you would not call it genius. (1512)
If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants. (February 15, 1676)
The Pyrenees have ceased to exist. (1700)
To hold a pen is to be at war. (October 4, 1748)
Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities. (1776)
The strongest arguments prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the ... goal of all speculation. (1267)
Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do. (1273)
It is pointless to do with more what can be done with fewer. (1341)
In the affairs of this world, poverty alone is without envy. (1350)
One ought to be both feared and loved, but ... it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. (1513)
The eye — which sees all objects reversed — retains the images for some time. (appx. 1470)
Thus indeed, as though seated on a royal throne, the sun governs the family of planets revolving around it. (1543)
Gravity is a mutual affection between cognate bodies ... so that the earth attracts a stone much rather than the stone seeks the earth. (1609)
Some years ago, as Your Serene Highness well knows, I discovered in the heavens many things that had not been seen before our own age. (1615)
Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope's indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved. (October 31, 1517)
I heard the executioner was very good. And I have a little neck. (1536)
Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God. (1536)
I die the king's faithful servant, but God's first. (July 1535)
Nothing is terrible except fear itself. (1623)
I desire not to keep my place in this government an hour longer than I may preserve England in its just rights. (January 22, 1655)
I have conquered an empire, but have not been able to conquer myself. (appx. 1723)
I think, therefore I am. (1644)
The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. (1689)
The heart of animals is the foundation of their life, the sovereign of everything within them ... that upon which all growth depends, from which all power proceeds. (1628)
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works ... He was [the] Christ. (appx. 75 AD)
Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is counting. (April 17, 1712)
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. (April 30, 1781)
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! (March 23, 1775)
The accumulation of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands ... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. (January 30, 1788)
The Regulars are coming out. (April 18, 1775)
It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth: Louis must die that the country may live. (December 3, 1792)
Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God. (appx. 1770)
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own. (1704)
In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist. It is against natural order that the great number should govern. (1762)
I came, I saw, I conquered. (47 BC)
Men trust their ears less than their eyes. (appx. 450 BC)
I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance. (appx. 425 BC)
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends. (325 BC)
The beginning in every task is the chief thing. (377 BC)
I know that I am mortal ... but when I trace ... the windings ... of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch earth ... I stand in the presence of Zeus himself. (appx. 125 AD)
I do not steal victory. (331 BC)
Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to love. (42 BC)
Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. (46 BC)
I have come not to make war on the Italians, but to aid the Italians against Rome. (June 24, 217 BC)
Number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and the cause of gods and daemons. (appx. 525 BC)
If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage. (appx. 500 BC)
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. (appx. 500 BC)
As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to do no harm. (appx. 400 BC)
Today I made the ascent of the highest mountain in this region, ... Ventosum. My only motive was the wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer. (April 26, 1336)
I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too. (1588)
A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy. (November 6, 1605)
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. (September 22, 1776)
These are the times that try men's souls ... he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women. (December 1776)
Does it contain any experimental reasoning, concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames. (1748)
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe ... the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me. (1788)
As for the Roman constitution, it had three elements, each of them possessing sovereign powers ... What the exact powers of these several parts were ... I will now state. (150 BC)