Joseph De Maistre

There is no philosophy without the art of ignoring objections.

Wherever an altar is found, there civilization exists.

There is no man who desires as passionately as a Russian. If we could imprison a Russian desire beneath a fortress, that fortress would explode.

False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing.

All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.

It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them.