Joseph Joubert
Quotes
To seek the truth. But, as you are seeking and as you are waiting, what will you do, what will you think, what will you practice, what rules will you follow?
Memory. — It is a mirror, that retains, and retains forever. Nothing is lost in it, nothing is erased. But it can be tarnished. And then one sees nothing in it.
What our eyes see, our imagination can no longer see. The same thing cannot be the object of both kinds of seeing.
God made life to be lived and not to be known.
When men are imbeciles, the one who is mad dominates the others.
To hide our eyes to make others believe we are hiding tears.
Anger makes us adroit.
Where do ideas go? They go into the memory of God.
It is impossible to love the same person twice.
Democracy and slavery are inseparable. Why. Democracy as it existed among the ancients was no more than government by a number of men large enough to be called the people. But this designation is false. The true people, in such a state, the greatest number, the majority belong to the class of slaves, and slavery inevitably develops in a country governed this way, because it is impossible that those who spend their time making laws can make shoes and clothes, plant crops, work fields, etc.
We are worth more when someone looks at us. And, because of this, an eye is always watching us.
The truth. They make it consist of nothing they cannot prove. The greatest happiness they find in it is being able to put forth incontestable assertions. This is what they like, and they consider it a sign of prestige, a prerogative, a power, a dignity, etc., a liberation from error.
