Despotism has so often been established in the name of liberty that experience should warn us to judge parties by their practices rather than their preachings.

Foreknowledge of the future makes it possible to manipulate both enemies and supporters.

Despotism has so often been established in the name of liberty that experience should warn us to judge parties by their practices rather than their preachings.

Skepticism cannot be revolutionary, even though it speaks the language of revolution.

What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error.

Intellectuals cannot tolerate the chance event, the unintelligible: they have a nostalgia for the absolute, for a universally comprehensive scheme.

Political thought in France is either nostalgic or Utopian.