Tyranny is just what one can develop a taste for, since it so happens that man prefers to wallow in fear rather than to face the anguish of being himself.

To devastate by language, to blow up the word and with it the world.

Tragic paradox of freedom: the mediocre men who alone make its exercise possible cannot guarantee its duration.

The more intense a spiritual leader's appetite for power, the more he is concerned to limit it to others.

In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws.

If, at the limit, you can rule without crime, you cannot do so without injustices.

Crime in full glory consolidates authority by the sacred fear it inspires.

To venture upon an undertaking of any kind, even the most insignificant, is to sacrifice to envy.

Each of us must pay for the slightest damage he inflicts upon a universe created for indifference and stagnation, sooner or later, he will regret not having left it intact.

Knowledge, having irritated and stimulated our appetite for power, will lead us inexorably to our ruin.