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False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing.

— Joseph de Maistre St. Petersburg Dialogues (1821)

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Notes from Wikiquote

"First Dialogue," p. 13

Topics

Mind

More quotes by Joseph de Maistre

The arts, in general, need a king; they only flourish under the influence of sceptres.

Against Rousseau (1795)

Religious beauty is superior to ideal beauty, since it is the ideal of the ideal.

An Examination of the Philosophy of Francis Bacon (1836)

It is always necessary to call men back to history, which is the first master in politics, or more exactly the only master.

Against Rousseau (1795)

Every nation gets the government it deserves.

A woman can only be superior as a woman; as soon as she wants to emulate man, she is nothing but an ape.

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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joseph de Maistre (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.