Controversial Sayings

What a dreadful falsehood it is to admire the truth, instead of following it.

All existence makes me anxious, from the smallest fly to the mysteries of the Incarnation; the whole thing is inexplicable, I most of all; to me all existence is infected, I most of all. My distress is enormous, boundless; no one knows it except God …

The greatest hazard of all, losing one's self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all.

Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth— look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.

The self-assured believer is a greater sinner in the eyes of God than the troubled disbeliever.

Woman is weak — no, she is humble, she is much closer to God than man is. Hence it is that love is everything to her, and she will certainly not disdain the blessing and confirmation which God is ready to bestow upon her .... Man is proud, he would b…

Although women can have even more potential and more talent than man, they always lack in judgment.

Women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important.

It is because women's reasoning powers are weaker that they show more sympathy for the unfortunate than men, and consequently take a kindlier interest in them. On the other hand, women are inferior to men in matters of justice, honesty, and conscient…

That woman is by nature intended to obey is shown by the fact that every woman who is placed in the unnatural position of absolute independence at once attaches herself to some kind of man, by whom she is controlled and governed; this is because she …

One need only look at a woman's shape to discover that she is not intended for either too much mental or too much physical work. Women are directly adapted to act as the nurses and educators of our early childhood, for the simple reason that they the…

The fundamental defect of the female character is a lack of a sense of justice. This originates first and foremost in their want of rationality and capacity for reflexion but it is strengthened by the fact that, as the weaker sex, they are driven to …

Women are guilty of perjury far more often than men. It is questionable whether they ought to be allowed to take an oath at all.

A completely truthful woman who does not practice dissimulation is perhaps an impossibility.

That the Negroes were enslaved more than other races, and on a large scale, is evidently a result of their being, in contrast to other races, less intelligent.

If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it…

In short, a large part of the powers of the human race is taken away from the production of what is necessary, in order to bring what is superfluous and unnecessary within the reach of a few.

The State in its essence is merely an institution existing for the purpose of protecting its members against outward attack or inward dissension. It follows from this that the ultimate ground on which the State is necessary is the acknowledged lack o…

Such a view is the apotheosis of Philistinism.

It is natural for a feeling of mere indifference to exist between men, but between women it is actual enmity.