Joseph de Maistre Quotes - Page 2

What a miserable world!--trouble if we love, and trouble if we do not love.

Man is so muddled, so dependent on the things immediately before his eyes, that every day even the most submissive believer can be seen to risk the torments of the afterlife for the smallest pleasure.

There is no man who desires as passionately as a Russian. If we could imprison a Russian desire beneath a fortress, that fortress would explode.

Women have a genius for love; men can only learn the art indifferently.

Nothing is necessary except God, and nothing is less necessary than pain.

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.

War is thus divine in itself, since it is a law of the world. War is divine through its consequences of a supernatural nature which are as much general as particular. War is divine in the mysterious glory that surrounds it and in the no less inexplicable attraction that draws us to it. War is divine by the manner in which it breaks out.

If there was no moral evil upon earth, there would be no physical evil.

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.

The concept of number is the obvious distinction between the beast and man.

It can even come about that a created will cancels out, not perhaps the exertion, but the result of divine action; for in this sense, God himself has told us that God wishes things which do not happen because man does not wish them! Thus the rights of men are immense, and his greatest misfortune is to be unaware of them.

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.

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.

All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.

Reason speaks in words alone, but love has a song.

A child is an angel dependent on man

In the works of man, everything is as poor as its author; vision is confined, means are limited, scope is restricted, movements are labored, and results are humdrum.