Joseph de Maistre Quotes

Quotes about:

• In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve.

  Joseph de Maistre

  People, Leader, Democracy

  Letter 76 in Lettres et Opuscules, August 27, 1811.

  42 Copy quote

• Every country has the government it deserves.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Country, Freedom, Government

  Lettres et Opuscules Inedits vol. 1, no. 53 (1851) (letter of 15 Aug. 1811)

  63 Copy quote

• The great fault in women is to desire to be like men.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Women, Desire, Faults

  40 Copy quote

• 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

  Money, Men, Knowing

  Joseph de Maistre (2017). “The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment”, p.239, Routledge

  25 Copy quote

• Every individual or national degeneration is immediately revealed by a directly proportional degradation in language.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Degradation, Language, Individual

  20 Copy quote

• To know how to wait. It is the great secret of success.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Motivational, Success, Patience

  61 Copy quote

• Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Love, Power, Men

  49 Copy quote

• All grandeur, all power, and all subordination to authority rests on the executioner: he is the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world and at that very moment order gives way to chaos, thrones topple and society disappears.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Order, Giving, Thrones

  19 Copy quote

• What is needed is not a revolution in the opposite direction, but the opposite of a revolution.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Opposites, Revolution, Needed

  25 Copy quote

• Man's destructive hand spares nothing that lives; he kills to feed himself, he kills to clothe himself, he kills to adorn himself, he kills to attack, he kills to defend himself, he kills to instruct himself, he kills to amuse himself, he kills for the sake of killing.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Life, Death, Art

  36 Copy quote

• We are tainted by modern philosophy which has taught us that all is good, whereas evil has polluted everything and in a very real sense all is evil, since nothing is in its proper place.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Philosophy, Real, Taught Us

  Joseph de Maistre (2017). “The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment”, p.64, Routledge

  23 Copy quote

• Man in general, if reduced to himself, is too wicked to be free.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Freedom, Men, Wicked

  30 Copy quote

• The whole earth, perpetually steeped in blood, is nothing but an immense altar on which every living thing must be sacrificed without end, without restraint, without respite until the consummation of the world, the extinction of evil, the death of death.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Life, Death, Sacrifice

  18 Copy quote

• A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Constitution, Made, Nations

  Joseph de Maistre (2017). “The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment”, p.80, Routledge

  17 Copy quote

• It is not the mediocrity of women's education which makes their weakness; it is their weakness which necessarily causes their mediocrity.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Education, Weakness, Mediocrity

  26 Copy quote

• Christianity was preached by ignorant men and believed by servants, and that is why it resembles nothing ever known.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Art, Philosophy, Men

  16 Copy quote

• Wherever an altar is found, there civilization exists.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Civilization, Found, Altars

  Joseph de Maistre (2017). “The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment”, p.257, Routledge

  13 Copy quote

• There is no philosophy without the art of ignoring objections.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Art, Philosophy, Philosopher

  Joseph de Maistre (2017). “The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment”, p.232, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• I don't know what a scoundrel is like, but I know what a respectable man is like, and it's enough to make one's flesh creep.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Respect, Men, Flesh

  73 Copy quote

• The concept of number is the obvious distinction between the beast and man. Thanks to number, the cry becomes a song, noise acquires rhythm, the spring is transformed into a dance, force becomes dynamic, and outlines figures.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Song, Spring, Math

  6 Copy quote

• Without doubt, God is the universal moving force, but each being is moved according to the nature that God has given it. God directs angels, men, animals, brute matter, in sum all created things, but each according to its nature: and man having been created free, he is led freely.

  Joseph de Maistre

  God, Nature, Moving

  "The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment".

  7 Copy quote

• Every time that a man who is not an absolute fool presents you with a
  question he considers very problematic after giving it careful thought,
  distrust those quick answers that come to the mind of someone who has
  considered it only briefly or not at all. These answers are usually
  simplistic views lacking in consistency, which explain nothing, or which do
  not bear examination.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Men, Views, Giving

  Joseph de Maistre, Richard Lebrun (1993). “St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence”, p.205, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

  6 Copy quote

• It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Creativity, Men, Gambling

  Joseph de Maistre (2017). “The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment”, p.128, Routledge

  36 Copy quote

• There is no easy method of learning difficult things. The method is to close the door, give out that you are not at home, and work.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Home, Learning, Doors

  8 Copy quote

• Genius does not seem to derive any great support from syllogisms. Its carriage is free; its manner has a touch of inspiration. We see it come, but we never see it walk.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Inspiration, Support, Doe

  7 Copy quote

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