(15) ‘On recognizes a well-bred man,’ he remarked, ‘by the manner in which he appears to listen.’
(22) I am stuck by the Russians’ excessive concern with the manner in which they are judged by outsiders.
(23) This is what the Russians want: when we no longer know what to say or think about them and their country, they have triumphed.
I think they would gladly be worse and more barbarous than they really are, provided they were considered better and more civilized.
I think they would gladly be worse and more barbarous than they really are, provided they were considered better and more civilized.
(24) the best disguise, and the most deceptive, is the face without a mask.
(25) is not the fault of the good Lord, Madame, if man have insisted on building the capital of a great empire in a land destined by nature to be the home of bears and wolves!
(29) I was about to enter the empire of fear; fear is as infectious as sadness, so I felt afraid, and sad… not out of politeness… to sing in the same key as everyone else.
(43) Silence governs life and paralyses it.
(53) But a shudder of fear is not one of contempt: you do not despise what you fear.
(63) they forget that there can be very gentle savages and very cruel soldiers.
(63) Up to now, as far as civilization is concerned, they have been satisfied with appearances, but if they were ever able to avenge their real inferiority, they would make us pay cruelly for our advantages over them.
(66) Absolute power is at its most awful when it is afraid.
(67) Heroism is strength, but a strength that exhausts life.
(70) The Ancients built with indestructible materials under a preserving sky; here, with no consideration for a climate that destroys everything.
(72) In Greek, hypocrites meant an actor: a hypocrite was someone who wore a mask for a theatrical performance
(72) “Hypocrite’ and ‘actor’ are offensive words.
(74) the power of his voice, which is indeed that of a man born to command.
(76) Unity of command, strength, authority and military might are here bought at the cost of freedom, while political freedom and industrial wealth have cost France its ancient spirit of chivalry and that old delicacy of feeling that was once known as the honour of the nation.
(76) this is what we do not recognize in France, where we risk destroying everything because we want to lose nothing. Each government is subject to constraints that is must accept and respect if it is not to be annihilated.
(76) However, it is still in Paris that one enjoys life the most: people are entertained by everything, because they satrise everything; in St. Petersbourg, everything bores because everything is praised. Yet pleasure is not the end of life, even for individuals, still less for nations.
(77) I hardly thought, during this ball, to experience a form of pleasure entirely unconnected with the people and objects around me.
(81) This was not mere luxury, but poetry.
(87) ‘Sire, I have always thought of representative government as a compromise inevitable in certain societies, at certain times; but, like all compromises, it resolves nothing, it merely adjourns the problems. ‘ The Tsar appeared to want me to go on, so I did: ‘It is a truce concluded between democracy and monarchy under the auspices of two very base tyrants: fear and self=interest; and it is prolonged by the pride of mind that revels in verbosity and by popular vanity that thrives on hot air. In about, is it the aristocracy of the word replacing the aristocracy of birth, for it is a government of lawyers.’
(92) In France, revolutionary tyranny is a transitory evil; in Russia, despotic tyranny is a permanent revolution
(100) in the absence of any other form of security, a nation relies on habit.
(102) disciplined brutality and cruelty
(103) Here, good manners is the art of reciprocal concealment of two species of fear; that which one feels and that which one causes others to feel.
(120) True civilissation goes from the centre to the circumference, while Russian civilisation has fome from the circumference to the centre: it is barbarism prepared over, nothing more.
(132) If excessive ambition parches the heart of a man, it may also dry up thought and pervert the judgment of a nation to the point where it will sacrifice its freedom for victory.
(135) …discretion, both useful and useless…
(153) The less one believes, the better one believes it.
(165) In their own eyes, the Russians exculpate themselves with the idea that the form of government they endure favours their ambitious hopes.
(120) True civilissation goes from the centre to the circumference, while Russian civilisation has fome from the circumference to the centre: it is barbarism prepared over, nothing more.
(132) If excessive ambition parches the heart of a man, it may also dry up thought and pervert the judgment of a nation to the point where it will sacrifice its freedom for victory.
(135) …discretion, both useful and useless…
(153) The less one believes, the better one believes it.
(165) In their own eyes, the Russians exculpate themselves with the idea that the form of government they endure favours their ambitious hopes.
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