Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph-Marie, comte de Maistrewas a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat. He defended hierarchical societies and a monarchical State in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Maistre was a subject of the King of Piedmont-Sardinia, whom he served as member of the Savoy Senate, ambassador to Russia, and minister of state to the court in Turin...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionDiplomat
Date of Birth1 April 1753
CountryFrance
learning home doors
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.
nature believe moving
Without doubt God is the universal moving force, but each being is moved according to the nature that God has given it. He directs angels, man, animals, brute matter, in sum all created things, but each according to its nature, and man having been created free, he is freely led. This rule is truly the eternal law and in it we must believe.
divine-guidance thrones action
We are all bound to the throne of the Supreme Being by a flexible chain which restrains without enslaving us. The most wonderful aspect of the universal scheme of things is the action of free beings under divine guidance.
math men numbers
The concept of number is the obvious distinction between the beast and man.
order giving agents
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.
song spring men
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.
evil earth would-be
If there was no moral evil upon earth, there would be no physical evil.
love world miserable
What a miserable world!--trouble if we love, and trouble if we do not love.
arms kingdoms reign
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.
inspiration support genius
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.
pain
Nothing is necessary except God, and nothing is less necessary than pain.
love pain punishment
All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.
respect men flesh
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.
degradation language individual
Every individual or national degeneration is immediately revealed by a directly proportional degradation in language.