Quotes from book

History and Utopia

“What pride to discover that nothing belongs to you — what a revelation.”

“Utopia is a mixture of childish rationalism and secularized angelism.”

“In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws.”

“Pursued by our origins…we all are.”

“Tyranny is just what one can develop a taste for, since it so happens that man prefers to wallow in fear rather than to face the anguish of being himself.”

“Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave.”

“Each of us must pay for the slightest damage he inflicts upon a universe created for indifference and stagnation, sooner or later, he will regret not having left it intact.”

“Glory — once achieved, what is it worth?”

“That history just unfolds, independently of a specified direction, of a goal, no one is willing to admit.”

“Tolerance — the function of an extinguished ardor — tolerance cannot seduce the young.”

“Were we to undertake an exhaustive self-scrutiny, disgust would paralyze us, we would be doomed to a thankless existence.”

“Isn't history ultimately the result of our fear of boredom?”

“Word — that invisible dagger.”

“Woes and wonders of power, that tonic hell, synthesis of poison and panacea.”

“One hardly saves a world without ruling it.”

“What every man who loves his country hopes for in his inmost heart: the suppression of half his compatriots.”

“For you who no longer possess it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion.”

“A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate.”

“A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.”