Democritus meditating on the seat of the soul (Démocrite méditant sur le siège de l'âme) is a statue by Léon-Alexandre Delhomme (1841–1895), exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1868. It shows the Greek philosopher Democritus, his eyes fixed on a skull he holds in his hands. It is now exhibited in the garden of the musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.
On its base is inscribed an extract from the 29th fable of La Fontaine:
- "Hippocrates in time arrived at the conclusion that he had not sought whether the heart or the head was the seat of either reason or sense in man and beast"
Famous quotes containing the words meditating, seat and/or soul:
“I am an intelligent river which has reflected successively all the banks before which it has flowed by meditating only on the images offered by those changing shores.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“He who placed me in this seat will keep me here.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“First, the cold friction of expiring sense
Without enchantment, offering no promise
But bitter tastelessness of shadow fruit
As body and soul begin to fall asunder.
Second, the conscious impotence of rage
At human folly,”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)