Date: 1664

"Thus they also trace figures in these gaps, which correspond to those of the objects. At first they do this less easily and perfectly than they do on gland H, but gradually they do it better and better, as their action becomes stronger and lasts longer, or is repeated more often. That is why the...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: w. 1628, published in 1684, 1701

"Again, the pen as a whole does not move in exactly the same way as its lower end; on the contrary, the upper part of the pen seems to have a quite different and opposite movement. This enables us to understand how all the movements of other animals can come about, even though we refuse to allow ...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: w. 1628, published in 1684, 1701

"Secondly, when an external sense organ is stimulated by an object, the figure which it receives is conveyed at one and the same moment to another part of the body known as the 'common' sense, without any entity really passing from the one to the other. In exactly the same way I understand that w...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1748, 1749

"But as the structure of this organ is such, that when once the eye formed for vision has received the pictures of objects, the brain cannot help seeing their images and differences: in the same manner when the signs of these differences are marked or ingraved in the brain, the soul must necessar...

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: w. 1753-1758

"Si la loi naturelle n'était écrite que dans la raison humaine, elle serait peu capable de diriger la plupart de nos actions. Mais elles est encore gravée dans le coeur de l'homme en caractères ineffaçables; et c'est là qu'elle lui parle plus fortement que tous les préceptes des philosophes; c'es...

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)

Date: 1762

"Along with these three kinds of law goes a fourth, most important of all, which is not graven on tablets of marble or brass, but on the hearts of the citizens."

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)

Date: 1762

"Plus je rentre en moi, plus je me consulte, & plus je lis ces mots écrits dans mon âme: Sois juste, & tu seras heureux. [The more I return within myself, the more I consult myself, the more plainly do I read these words written in my soul: Be just and you will be happy.]"

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)

Date: 1762

"En suivant toujours ma méthode, je ne tire point ces règles des principes d’une haute philosophie, mais je les trouve au fond de mon coeur écrites par la nature en caractères ineffaçables [Following always my method, I do not draw these rules from the principles of the higher philosophy, but I f...

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)

Date: 1762

"Tous les devoirs de la loi naturelle, presque effacés de mon coeur par l’injustice des hommes, s’y retracent au nom de l’éternelle justice qui me les impose & qui me les voit remplir plus en moi que l’ouvrage & l’instrument du veut le bien, qui le fait, qui fera le mien par mes volontés aux sien...

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)

Date: 1762

"Cette doctrine, venant de Dieu, doit porter le sacré caractère de la Divinité; non seulement elle doit nous éclaircir les idées confuses que le raisonnement en trace dans notre esprit, mais elle doit aussi nous proposer un culte, une morale & des maximes convenables aux attributs par lesquels se...

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)