Shocking Sayings
736 sayings found from the Early Modern era
Indigenous Americans take on no 'formation' (Bildung).
Lying, under any circumstances, is always wrong.
Even if the heavens were to fall, justice must be done.
Women are naturally destined to please men.
Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a portion of mankind, after nature has long since discharged them from external direction, nevertheless remains under lifelong tutelage.
War itself, provided it is conducted with order and respect for the rights of the enemy, has something sublime about it.
Punishment must always be inflicted upon the criminal for the sake of punishment itself.
If justice perishes, then it is no longer worthwhile for men to live on earth.
We are not rich by what we possess, but by what we can do without.
To be is to do.
Reason is the basis of our status as moral agents.
Africans lack rationality because of their skin colour.
The highest good in the world, the final end of all moral effort, is a world in which happiness is distributed in exact proportion to morality.
It is not necessary that I should be happy, but it is necessary that I should be moral.
A human being who is supposed to make use of his reason for himself needs only freedom, nothing else.
A good will is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes—because of its fitness for attaining some proposed end: it is good only by virtue of the volition—that is, it is good in itself.
Respect for the law is not to be commanded, but to be felt.
The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human bei…
Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry. If pushpin maximizes happiness for the greatest number of people—that is, if it provides more pleasure than either music or poetry—then, he reason…
Twenty years after I am dead, I shall be a despot, sitting in my chair with Dapple in my hand, and wearing one of the coats I wear now.