The role of the scholar is to destroy chimeras, that of the statesman is to make use of them.

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

The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.

Science has promised us truth...It has never promised us either peace or happiness.

Crowds are influenced mainly by images produced by the judicious employment of words and formulas

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 images evoked by words being independent of their sense, they vary from age to age and from people to people, the formulas remaining identical. Certain transitory images are attached to certain words: the word is merely as it were the button of an electric bell that calls them up.