Benjamin Constant Quotes

Every time government attempts to handle our affairs, it costs more and the results are worse than if we had handled them ourselves.

Art for art's sake, with no purpose, for any purpose perverts art. But art achieves a purpose which is not its own. (1804)

There is a bizarre notion according to which it is claimed that because men are corrupt, it is necessary to give certain of them all the more power... on the contrary, they must be given less power.

There are things one does not say for a long time, but, once they are said, one never stops repeating them.

No duty, however, binds us to these so-called laws, whose corrupting influence menaces what is noblest in our being.

The great question in life is the suffering we cause, and the most ingenious metaphysics do not justify the man who has broken the heart that loved him.

If political authority is not limited, the division of powers, ordinarily the guarantee of freedom, becomes a danger and a scourge.