Se tivessem feito essa peregrinação instrutiva, verificariam que o servilismo intelectual é no homem um vício irredutível, e que por mais que se facilite o largo e livre exercício da razão, e que se lhe ensine a sacudir o despotismo dos oráculos - sempre ele por instinto, por covardia, por indolência, por desconfiança de si próprio, abdicará do direito de pensar originalmente e se submeterá com prazer, com alívio, a toda a autoridade, que, à maneira de um pastor entre um rebanho, se erga, toque a buzina e lhe aponte um caminho com o cajado. Realmente a humanidade é gado - e o primeiro movimento de toda a cabeça livre é pender para o sulco aberto, enfiar para debaixo da canga.

O Zeus, perché hai dato ai mortali indizi chiari dell'oro che risulti falso, mentre nel corpo degli uomini non vi è impresso alcun segno con cui riconoscere il malvagio?

Singular historia: pretendió saber que Judas lo señalaría con el dedo a gentes que le conocían muy bien desde hacía tiempo, y, aún sabiendo que Judas debía traicionarlo, no le previno.
En fin, el pueblo empieza a gritar Barrabás, Barrabás, mueran los polis, abajo las sotanas y, crucificado entre dos chulos, uno de los cuales era chivato, exhala el último suspiro; las mujeres se revuelcan por el suelo aullando de dolor, un gallo canta y el trueno truena como de costumbre.
Confortablemente instalado sobre su nube insignia, Dios padre, de la casa Dios padre hijo Espíritu Santo y Cía., lanza un inmenso suspiro de satisfacción; seguidamente dos o tres nubecillas subalternas estallan con obsequiosidad y Dios padre exclama: «Loado sea yo, bendita mi santa razón social, con mi bienamado hijo en la cruz, mi negocio está lanzado!»

The very fact that God has placed a certain soul in our way is a sign that God wants us to do something for him or her. It is not chance; it has been planned by God. We are bound by conscience to help him or her.

I know what you are thinking - you need a sign. What better one could I give than to make this little one whole and new? I could do it, but I will not. I am the Lord and not a conjurer. I gave this mite a gift I denied to all of you - eternal innocence. To you, he looks imperfect but to me he is flawless like the bud that dies unopened or the fledgling that falls from the nest to be devoured by the ants. He will never offend me, as all of you have done. He will never pervert or destroy the work of my Father's hands. He is necessary to you. He will evoke the kindness that will keep you human. His infirmity will prompt you to gratitude for your own good fortune. More! He will remind you every day that I am who I am, that my ways are not yours, and that the smallest dust mite, while in darkest space, does not fall out of my hand. I have chosen you. You have not chosen me. This little one is my sign to you. Treasure him!

"The fact that a man who goes his own way ends in ruin means nothing ... He <i>must</i> obey his own law, as if it were a daemon whispering to him of new and wonderful paths ... There are not a few who are called awake by the summons of the voice, whereupon they are at once set apart from the others, feeling themselves confronted with a problem about which the others know nothing. In most cases it is impossible to explain to the others what has happened, for any understanding is walled off by impenetrable prejudices. "You are no different from anybody else," they will chorus or, "there's no such thing," and even if there is such a thing, it is immediately branded as "morbid"...He is at once set apart and isolated, as he has resolved to obey the law that commands him from within. "His <i>own</i> law!" everybody will cry. But he knows better: it is <i>the</i> law...The only meaningful life is a life that strives for the individual realization — absolute and unconditional — of its own particular law ... To the extent that a man is untrue to the law of his being ... he has failed to realize his own life's meaning."

Estás em erro, meu amigo, se pensas que um homem, possuidor de algum mérito, deve calcular os riscos de viver ou morrer, em vez de, quando age, considerar apenas se o que faz é justo ou injusto, é obra de um homem de bem ou de um perverso. (...) Seria, de facto, um procedimento estranho o meu, Atenienses, se , depois de me ter mantido firme como qualquer soldado, afrontando a morte, no posto que os generais, por vós eleitos, me confiaram em Potideia, em Anfípolis e em Délio, abandonasse agora, por medo da morte ou do que quer que seja, o posto que me foi atribuído por um Deus, renunciando à missão conscientemente aceite, de viver filosofando, examinando-me a mim próprio e aos outros

Signs are small measurable things, but interpretations are illimitable, and in girls of sweet, ardent nature, every sign is apt to conjure up wonder, hope, belief, vast as a sky, and colored by a thimbleful of matter in the shape of knowledge....wrong reasoning sometimes lands poor mortals in right conclusions: starting a long way off the true point, and proceeding by loops and zigzags, we now and then arrive just where we ought to be. Just because Miss Brooke was hasty in her trust, it is not therefore clear that Mr. Casaubon was unworthy of it.

- Então que lhe ensinava você, abade, se eu lhe entregasse o rapaz? Que se não deve roubar o dinheiro das algibeiras, nem mentir, nem maltratar os inferiores, por que isso é contra os mandamentos da lei de Deus, e leva ao inferno, hein? É isso?... - Há mais alguma coisa... - Bem sei. Mas tudo isso que você lhe ensinaria que se não deve fazer, por ser um pecado que ofende a Deus, já ele sabe que se não deve praticar, por que é indigno dum cavalheiro e dum homem de bem... - Mas, meu senhor... - Ouça abade. Toda a diferença é essa. Eu quero que o rapaz seja virtuoso por amor da virtude e honrado por amor da honra; mas não por medo ás caldeiras de Pero Botelho, nem com o engodo de ir para o reino do céu...

One could not stand and watch very long without being philosophical, without beginning to deal in symbols and similes, and to hear the hog-squeal of the universe.... Each of them had an individuality of his own, a will of his own, a hope and a heart's desire; each was full of self-confidence, of self-importance, and a sense of dignity. And trusting and strong in faith he had gone about his business, the while a black shadow hung over him, and a horrid Fate in his pathway. Now suddenly it had swooped upon him, and had seized him by the leg. Relentless, remorseless, all his protests, his screams were nothing to it. It did its cruel will with him, as if his wishes, his feelings, had simply no existence at all; it cut his throat and watched him gasp out his life.

The existentialist cannot accept that man can be helped by any sign on earth, for he will interpret the sign as he chooses.

You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me, and is the divinity which Meletus ridicules in the indictment. This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do...

Si vous faîtes attention aux signes, quand donc ferez vous attention à ce qu'ils signifient?

If you pay attention to the signs, but when will you pay attention to what they signify?

He was down and out, the Catholics took him in, and before he knew it, he had faith. So it was gratitude that decided the issue, most likely. Human decisions are terribly simple.