Home › Authors › Bertrand de Jouvenel
Bertrand de Jouvenel Quotes
1903–1987 France
Bertrand de Jouvenel des Ursins (31 October 1903 – 1 March 1987), a late French aristocrat, was a philosopher, political economist, and futurist. Among other places, he taught at Oxford, the Cambridge, Yale and Berkeley.
France Economists Novelists Philosophers Political authors Also known as: On Power
Random Bertrand de Jouvenel quote
26 quotes
Power thus expelled soon returns, however, under the spur of its requirements. The resources at his disposal are absurdly out of proportion to the area, which depends on it and to the population, which calls it the sovereign.
On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)
…the State is in essence the result of the successes achieved by a band of brigands who superimpose themselves on small, distinct societies.
The more one considers the matter, the clearer it becomes that redistribution is in effect far less a redistribution of free income from the richer to the poorer, as we imagined, than a redistribution of power from the individual to the State.
The Ethics of Redistribution (1990)
No century has been more concerned than ours to do away with war: it has proved signally unsuccessful. All too little attention has been given to the phenomenon that internal politics have become increasingly more warlike.
The pure Theory of Politics (1963)
The history of the democratic doctrine furnishes a striking example... Born for the purpose of standing as a bulwark against Power, it ends by providing Power with the finest soil it has ever had in which to spread itself over the social field.
On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)
Command is a mountain top. The air breathed there is different, and the perspectives seen there are different, from those of the valley of obedience. The passion for order and the genius of construction, which are part of man’s natural endowment, get full play there. The man who has grown great sees from the top of his tower what he can make, if he so wills, of the swarming masses below him.
On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)
Topics Bertrand de Jouvenel is quoted on
Works