Claude Adrien Helvetius
Claude Adrien Helvetius
Claude Adrien Helvétius– 26 December 1771) was a French philosopher, freemason and littérateur...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth26 February 1715
CountryFrance
mind desire
By annihilating desires, you annihilate the mind.
virtue reason endowment
No nation has reason to regard itself superior to others by virtue of its innate endowment.
aversion littles merit
To be loved, we should merit but little esteem; all superiority attracts awe and aversion.
truth fog gleam
Truth is the torch that gleams through the fog without dispelling it.
made
Education made us what we are.
attention genius
Genius is nothing but continued attention.
strong men numbers
There are men whom a happy disposition, a strong desire of glory and esteem, inspire with the same love for justice and virtue which men in general have for riches and honors. But the number of these men is so small that I only mention them in honor of humanity.
strong passion men
The men of sense, the idols of the shallow, are very inferior to the men of passions. It is the strong passions which, rescuing us from sloth, impart to us that continuous and earnest attention necessary to great intellectual efforts.
pain spring men
Pleasure and pain are the only springs of action in man, and always will be.
religious jesus believe
A man who believes that he eats his God we do not call mad; yet, a man who says he is Jesus Christ, we call mad.
criticism hammers anvils
Harsh counsels have no effect; they are like hammers which are always repulsed by the anvil.
hate men vices
Of all the vices, avarice is the most generally detested; it is the effect of an avidity common to all men; it is because men hate those from whom they can expect nothing. The greedy misers rail at sordid misers.
order envy honor
Envy honors the dead in order to insult the living.
order envy honor
Envy honors the dead in order to insult the living.