“Once we allow ourselves to do evil so that some perceived good may follow, we allow ever greater evils for the sake of ever more questionable goods, until we consent to the greatest evils for the sake of mere trifles.”

It thereby exercised the power of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In imagining Rousseau to be right, we have become what Rousseau imagined.

Like Aristotle, conservatives generally accept the world as it is; they distrust the politics of abstract reason – that is, reason divorced from experience.

In August, 1900, [Friedrich] Nietzsche was laid to rest Nietzsche, as the apostle of atheism, heralded the darkest century the world has ever known.

Sometimes a clearly defined error is the only way to discover the truth

There once was a man called Rousseau who wrote a book containing nothing but ideas. The second edition was bound in the skins of those who laughed at the first.

But I see no reason why a woman should not grow and develop in all those outlets which are suited to her nature, it matters not at all what they may be.

While art may instruct as well as please, it can nevertheless be true art without instructing, but not without pleasing.

I may have aimed too high sometimes, asked too much of myself and demanded too little from those around me.

I have no objection to a man being a man, however masculine that may be.

There are some who esteem that it is a naivety to believe that a moral regeneration may be possible (“soit possible”, Fr.); now, if this was not the case, it would not be worth the trouble that humanity continue to vegetate without aim.

Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all artwork.

It is not on the ruin of liberty that we may (in the future… – “pourra”, Fr.) build justice.

Science may carry us to Mars, but it will leave the earth peopled as ever by the inept.