Philosophy Quote by Joseph de Maistre — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“In the whole vast dome of living nature there reigns an open violence. A kind of prescriptive fury which arms all the creatures to their common doom: as soon as you leave the inanimate kingdom you find the decree of violent death inscribed on the very frontiers of life. You feel it already in the vegetable kingdom: from the great catalpa to the humblest herb, how many plants die and how many are killed; but, from the moment you enter the animal kingdom, this law is suddenly in the most dreadful evidence. A Power, a violence, at once hidden and palpable. . . has in each species appointed a certain number of animals to devour the others. . . And who [in this general carnage] exterminates him who will exterminate all others? Himself. It is man who is charged with the slaughter of man. . . The whole earth, perpetually steeped in blood, is nothing but a vast altar upon which all that is living must be sacrificed without end, without measure, without pause, until the consummation of things, until evil is extinct, until the death of death.”

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

“A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none.”

“I do not know what the heart of a rascal may be, but I know what is in the heart of an honest man; it is horrible.”

“If you hold to this - expecting nothing, fearing nothing, simply content with acting in accordance with our nature in the present moment, and speaking with complete honesty in everything we say - then you will live a happy life, and no one can stop you from doing so.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​”

“[Truth] will keep your soul from withering and dying while you encounter the inevitable tragedy of life. It will help you avoid the terrible desire to seek vengeance for that tragedy-part of the terrible sin of Being, which everything must bear gracefully, just so it can exist.”

“...When he puts a thing on a pedestal and calls it beautiful, he demands the same delight from others. He judges not merely for himself, but for all men, and then speaks of beauty as if it were the property of things.”

“If anyone on the verge of action should judge himself according to the outcome, he would never begin.”

“Consider the following sequence of cases, which we shall call the Tale of the Slave, and imagine it is about you.”