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Joseph de Maistre

Joseph de Maistre Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Joseph de Maistre Quotes

“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.”

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Book:St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence
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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.”

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Book:The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment
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“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.”

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Book:The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion, and Enlightenment
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“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.”

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Book:The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment
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“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.”

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