The beginning of a revolution is in reality the end of a belief.

All the civilizations we know have been created and directed by small intellectual aristocracies, never by people in the mass. The power of crowds is only to destroy.

Are the worst enemies of society those who attack it or those who do not even give themselves the trouble of defending it?

A crowd is not merely impulsive and mobile. Like a savage, it is not prepared to admit that anything can come between its desire and the realisation of its desire.

Crowds are somewhat like the sphinx of ancient fable: It is necessary to arrive at a solution of the problems offered by their psychology or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them.

The art of those who govern consists above all in the science of employing words.

If atheism spread, it would become a religion as intolerable as the ancient ones.