79 quotes
Creating difficulties for himself for the pleasure of resolving them is a strange human mania.
Against Rousseau (1795)
All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.
St. Petersburg Dialogues (1821)
Never have nations been civilized, except by religion.
Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions (1809)
During the last three centuries, there has been, by virtue of the Inquisition, a greater enjoyment of peace, and happiness, in Spain, than in the other nations of Europe.
Letters on the Spanish Inquisition (1822)
The art of the legislator is not to make a people free, but free enough.
Considerations on France (1796)
Final causes or intentions are the torment of modern philosophy, which neglects nothing to get rid of them.
An Examination of the Philosophy of Francis Bacon (1836)
Evil has nothing in common with life; it cannot create, since its power is purely negative. Evil is the schism of being; it is not true.
Considerations on France (1796)
Who does not know that veiled beauty is more seductive than visible beauty?
An Examination of the Philosophy of Francis Bacon (1836)
Every country has the government it deserves.
Government is a true religion: it has its dogmas, its mysteries, and its ministers. To annihilate it or submit it to the discussion of each individual is the same thing; it lives only through national reason, that is to say through political faith, which is a creed.
Against Rousseau (1795)
The eighteenth century, which distrusted itself in nothing, as a matter of course, hesitated in nothing.
Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions (1809)
Nothing great has great beginnings.
Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions (1809)
All honour comes from God, said Homer of old; he spoke exactly like St Paul, without having plagiarized him. One thing certain is that man cannot impart that indefinable characteristic that is called dignity.
Considerations on France (1796)
'Long live the king,' cry the loving and the loyal, beside themselves with joy. 'Long live the king,' responds the republican hypocrite in dire terror. What does it matter? There is only one cry. And the king is crowned.
Considerations on France (1796)
The first among the sciences is that of statesmanship. That cannot be learnt in academies.
St. Petersburg Dialogues (1821)
Our descendants, who will worry very little about our sufferings and will dance on our graves, will laugh at our present ignorance.
Considerations on France (1796)
This makes me think that the French Revolution is a great epoch and that its consequences, in all kinds of ways, will be felt far beyond the time of its explosion and the limits of its birthplace.
Considerations on France (1796)
All the beings that surround us have only one law and follow it in peace. Man alone has two laws.
Unhappily, history proves that war is, in a certain sense, the habitual state of mankind, which is to say that human blood must flow without interruption somewhere or other on the globe, and that for every nation, peace is only a respite.
Considerations on France (1796)
Why so many laws? Because there is no legislator. What have these so-called legislators done in six years? Nothing, for to destroy is not to make.
Considerations on France (1796)