"Behind the classical mask, behind the classical façade, behind the air of the Grand Seigneur, behind the orthodox Thomism, behind the official complete subservience to the monarchy of his day, which was nothing very splendid or impressive, there is in Maistre something much wilder, much more romantic, much more terrifying. He reminds one of someone like d'Annunzio or Nietzsche – not to seek for later examples. In that way he resembled Rousseau. Just as Rousseau imposed a kind of Calvinist logical strait-jacket upon what was really a kind of burning private lunacy, so Maistre imposes an official legitimist Catholic framework upon what is really a deeply violent, deeply revolutionary inner passion."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Isaiah Berlin, "Introduction" in Considerations on France (1994), xxxii–xxxiii
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_de_Maistre
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer and diplomat who advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his close personal and intellectual ties with France, Maistre was throughout his life a subject of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which he served as a member of the Savoy Senate (1787–1792), ambassador to Russia (1803–1817) and minister of state to the court in Turin (1817–1821).
102 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Joseph de Maistre →
Related Quotes
"In the immense sphere of living things, the obvious rule is violence, a kind of inevitable frenzy which arms all thin…"
"Man is an enigma whose knot has not ceased to occupy observers. The contradictions that he contains astonish reason a…"
"In a word, the mass of the people counts for nothing in every political creation. A people even respects a government…"
"Burke said with a depth that it is impossible to admire enough that art is man’s nature: yes, undoubtedly, man with a…"
"If sovereignty is not anterior to a people, at least these two ideas are collateral, since it takes a sovereign to ma…"
"Men never respect what they have made themselves. This is why an elective king never possesses the moral power of a h…"
"Creating difficulties for himself for the pleasure of resolving them is a strange human mania."
"In the Koran as in the Bible, politics is divinized, and human reason, crushed by the religious ascendancy, cannot in…"
"The wiser nations are, the more public spirit they possess, the more perfect their political constitution, the fewer …"
"Nations are barbarian in their infancy but not savage. The barbarian is a proportional mean between the savage and th…"