Man, in spite of his fatal degradation, bears always the evident marks of his divine origin, in that every universal belief is always more or less true.
Joseph De MaistreRead
Government is a true religion: it has its dogmas, its mysteries, its priests. To submit it to the individual discussion is to destroy it; it is given life only through the national mind, that is to say, by political faith, which is a creed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that government operates like a religion, relying on collective belief and faith rather than individual critique.
Joseph De Maistre's quote posits that government functions similarly to a religious institution, with its own set of beliefs, rituals, and authorities. By comparing government to a religion, he emphasizes the importance of collective faith and the acceptance of its dogmas without questioning them. The idea that individual discussions and critiques could undermine the government suggests that stability in governance is rooted in the shared belief of the populace, reinforcing the notion that political faith operates not on rational discourse, but on deeply held convictions.
Themes
GovernmentFaithBeliefPoliticsPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about the role of government, one might quote this to illustrate the importance of collective belief in governance.
More from Joseph De Maistre
All quotes →Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.
Joseph De MaistreRead
A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none.
Joseph De MaistreRead
False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing.
Joseph De MaistreRead
Reason speaks in words alone, but love has a song.
Joseph De MaistreRead
Man in harmony with his Creator is sublime, and his action is creative; equally, once he separates himself from God and acts alone, he does not cease to be powerful, since this is the privilege of his nature, but his acts are negative and lead only to destruction.
Joseph De MaistreRead
Similar quotes
And if you can't shape your life the way you want, at least try as much as you can not to degrade it.
C.P. CavafyRead
If state, party and social policy will not be based on morality, then mankind has no future to speak of.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
For you know only a heap of broken images
T. S. EliotRead
Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.
William JamesRead
When I was younger, not being accepted made me enraged, but now, I am not inclined to dismantle my history. If you banish the dragons, you banish the heroes-and we become attached to the heroic strain in our personal history.
Andrew SolomonRead
The Darwinian movement has made no difference to mankind, except that, instead of talking unphilosophically about philosophy, they now talk unscientifically about science.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead