LUDWIG BORNE

Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.

Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.

If one age believes too much it is natural that another believes too little.

Only the suppressed word is dangerous.

… the biography of mankind

We are unable to recognize the laws of necessity if we believe we are free

A people that patiently lets itself be trampled, deserves to be trampled and crushed.

A pupil of diplomacy has to learn three things: to speak French, to speak nothing, and to speak falsehood.

Because I was born a slave, I love liberty more than you.

The difference between liberty and liberties is as great as between God and gods.

Governments are sails, the people is the wind, the state is the boat, and time is the sea.

Ministers [of government] fall like buttered bread: usually with the good side down.

It is not the mind, but the heart that makes free.

To rule is an art, not a science.

To strengthen a weak government, we must reduce its power.

To their entertainments princes invite only the nobility; but when they meet with misfortune, they invite also citizens.

Tyrants of our day are the most dangerous preachers of liberty.

United, France and Germany can accomplish and prevent anything.... On their union depends, therefore, not only their own welfare but also the destiny of all of Europe.

You are not loved when you are lovely, but when you are loved you are found to be lovely.

Ministers fall like buttered slices of bread: usually on their good side.

The most dangerous person is the fearful; he is the most to be feared.

Nothing endures except change; nothing is constant except death. Every heartbeat wounds us, and life would be an eternal bleeding to death, were it not for literature. It grants us what nature does not: a golden time that doesn't rust, a springtime that never wilts, cloudless happiness and eternal youth. [my translation]

If you must hate, if hatred is the leaven of your life, which alone can give flavor, then hate what should be hated: falsehood, violence, selfishness.

History teaches us virtue, but nature never ceases to teachh us vice.