We are ending where the savages began. We have found again the lost arts of starving non-combatants, burning hovels, and leading away the vanquished into slavery. Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns. — Bertrand de Jouvenel Copy Share Image
“It is passing strange that our philosophers of the Revolutionary period should have formed their conception of a free society by reference to societies where everyone was not free - where, in fact, the vast majority were not free. It… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share Image
But there are no institutions on earth which enable each separate person to have a hand in the exercise of Power, for Power is… — Bertrand de Jouvenel Copy Share Image
It is appropriate here to recall that the so-called Dark Ages began with the flight of the individuals into the protection of lords or… — Bertrand de Jouvenel Copy Share Image
“As every advance of Power is useful for war, so war is useful for the advance of power; war is like a sheep-dog harrying… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share Image
“The modern absolutism, which we find the most natural thing in the world, would have been quite beyond the dreams of the most absolute… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share Image
Ransack the history of revolutions, and it will be found that every fall of a regime has been presaged by a defiance which went… — Bertrand de Jouvenel Copy Share Image
“The man who has dedicated himself to the success of the protect, the master builder, no longer has any freedom: his conduct is now determined altogether by the constraining force of the end. Logically, therefore, he is bound to require at every moment from his companions whatever will best serve that end, and he demands of them imperiously whatever he… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share
“The entire stock of relationships which suited in war—militiae—was regarded as inadmissible and improper in peace—domi. We have the measure of how right the… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share Image
“Historians of the sentimental school have sometimes regretted that royalty became absolute, while at the same time rejoicing that it installed plebeians in office.… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share Image
“The idea so commonly found that scepticism leads to toleration arises from considering the effects of scepticism in the intellectual who takes no active part - not its effects in the man of action. In the man of action, moral relativism and scepticism as to the absolute and universal value of his priunciples are no obstacle to a fanatical belief… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share
“Power is linked with war, and a society wishing to limit war's ravages can find no other way than by limiting the scope of… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share Image
“Rejoicing in his absolute authority, the single egoist will exploit it methodically, whereas a mêlée of egoists will bring about a ruinous disorder and a disastrous cleavage, because the contrariety of the appetites to be satisfied will prevent the satisfaction of any single one. Clearly, then, the effect of the pursuit of private ends under cover of the public good… — Bertrand De Jouvenel Copy Share
