“En général, on parvient aux affaires par ce que l'on a de médiocre, et l'on y reste par ce que l'on a de supérieur. Cette réunion d'éléments antagonistes est la chose la plus rare, et c'est pour cela qu'il y a si peu d'hommes d’État.”
Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, 1848
Citations similaires
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“Plus il y'a d'éléments en jeu, plus il y a de choses qui peuvent mal tourner.”
Prométhée, 1976
The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it; and a State which postpones the interests of their mental expansion and elevation, to a little more of administrative skill, or that semblance of it which practice gives, in the details of business; a State, which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes, will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished; and that the perfection of machinery to which it has sacrificed everything, will in the end avail it nothing, for want of the vital power which, in order that the machine might work more smoothly, it has preferred to banish.
en
De la liberté
Maximes et pensées
Histoire de mes idées philosophiques (1961)
