Giovanni Vico

"Providence works through the hidden hand of human passion and conflict."

"To understand a nation, one must understand its myths and legends."

"The sensory world is only half the truth of existence."

"Eloquence and wisdom are not always companions."

"The fall of republics begins when justice becomes the servant of power."

"Memory is the treasury of all learning and wisdom."

"Nations, like plants, must have seasons of growth and decline."

"The wise man reads in the faces of men as others read in books."

"Fear and superstition are the mothers of invention in primitive societies."

"Children are naturally philosophers, asking the eternal questions."

"Society requires both the powerful and the weak to function justly."

"The written word can never fully capture the spoken word's truth."

"Madness and genius often dwell in the same chamber of the mind."

"To know God is to know oneself; to know oneself is to know all things."

"War is the forge in which nations are tempered and tested."

"The eternal now is all that truly exists in human consciousness."

"Virtue is not inherited but must be constantly practiced and renewed."

"The past speaks to us through the ruins and monuments we discover."

"True commerce is the exchange not of goods but of understanding."

"Beauty is the harmonious arrangement of parts into a pleasing whole."

"The laws of nature are written in the human heart."

"In every act of creation lies the seed of destruction."

"The greatest civilizations are built by those who dare to dream."

"Time is the judge that eventually vindicates the truth."

"The vulgar mind delights in simple causes; the wise in complex ones."

"History teaches that freedom is precious because it is easily lost."

"The bond between parent and child is the first and noblest of all bonds."

"Ignorance is not mere absence of knowledge but active resistance to it."

"The marketplace of ideas requires honest merchants and discerning buyers."

"Courage without wisdom is merely recklessness."