Quotes from Victor Cousin

True philosophy invents nothing; it merely establishes and describes what is.

What is philosophy? It is something that lightens up, that makes bright.

We need religion for religions's sake, morality for morality's sake and art for art's sake.

All men have an equal right to the free development of their faculties; they have an equal right to the impartial protection of the state; but it is not true, it is against all the laws of reason and equity, it is against the eternal nature of things.

In everything the ends well defined are the secret of durable success.

All truly historical peoples have an idea they must realize, and when they have sufficiently exploited it at home, they export it, in a certain way, by war; they make it tour the world.

You can only govern men by serving them.

The beautiful cannot be the way to what is useful, or to what is good, or to what is holy; it leads only to itself.

Art for art's sake.

We need religion for religion's sake, morality for morality's sake, art for art's sake.

If ignorance is bliss, there should be more happy people.

All truly historical peoples have an idea they must realize, and when they have sufficiently exploited it at home, they export it, in a certain way, by war they make it tour the world.

All men have an equal right to the free development of their faculties; they have an equal right to the impartial protection of the state; but it is not true, it is against all the laws of reason and equity, it is against the eternal nature of things, that the indolent man and the laborious man, the spendthrift and the economist, the imprudent and the wise, should obtain and enjoy an equal amount of goods.

True philosophy invents nothing; it merely establishes and describes what is.

Ignorance is the primary source of all misery and vice.