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To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; each saves us from thinking.

Henri Poincaré

Science and Hypothesis

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Original Citation

Poincare, Henri. La science et l'hypothese [Science and Hypothesis]. Flammarion, 1902, introduction.

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Poincare, Henri. Science and Hypothesis: The Complete Text, translated by Melanie Frappier, Andrea Smith and David J. Stump, edited by Melanie Frappier and David J. Stump. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, preface.

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My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas's court. You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face.

Jean-Dominique Bauby

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

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Bauby, Jean-Dominique. Le Scaphandre et le Papillon [The Diving Bell and the Butterfly]. Editions Robert Laffont, 1997, prologue.

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The extermination camps, in endeavoring to turn man into a beast, intimated that it is not life alone which makes him man.

Andre Malraux

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Malraux, Andre. Antimemoires [Anti-memoirs]. Gallimard, 1967, sect. 2.

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There are moments when everything goes well; don't be frightened, it won't last.

Jules Renard

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Original Citation

Renard, Jules. Journal entry. 31 Oct. 1908.

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Renard, Jules. The Journal of Jules Renard, edited and translated by Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Roget. Tin House Books, 2017.

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There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer.

Eugene Ionesco

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Ionesco, Eugene. Rhinoceros. 1959, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany, act 1.

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To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; to have done great things together, to will to do the like again-these are the essential conditions for the making of a people.

Ernest Renan

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Renan, Ernest. "Qu’est-ce qu’une nation? [What is a Nation?]" 11 Mar. 1882, University of Sorbonne, Paris, France, pt. 3.

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Renan, Ernest. "What is a Nation?" What is a Nation and Other Political Writings, translated by M. F. N. Giglioli. Columbia University Press, 2018, ch. 10, pt. 3.

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To tell the truth, one is not born a genius: one becomes a genius.

Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex

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De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième Sexe [The Second Sex]. Vol. 1, Gallimard, 1949.

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De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex, translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. Vintage, 2011.

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The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract

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Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique [On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Law]. Amsterdam: Marc Michel Rey, 1762, bk. 1, ch. 4.

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Current Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Of the Social Contract." Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings, translated by Quintin Hoare. Penguin Classics, 2012, bk. 1, ch. 4.

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We must cultivate our garden.

Voltaire

Candide

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Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 30.

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Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 30.

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There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Napoleon Bonaparte

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Bonaparte, Napoleon. Quoted in Histoire de I'Ambassade dans le grand-duche de Varsovie en 1812 [History of the Embassy in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw in 1812], written by M. de Pradt. Paris: Pilet, 1815.

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Nothing is more fertile in prodigies than the art of being free; but there is nothing more arduous than the apprenticeship of liberty.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 1, London: Saunders and Otley, 1835, ch. 14, pt. 1.

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Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 1, ch. 14, pt. 1.

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Take away time is money, and what is left of England? Take away cotton is king, and what is left of America?

Victor Hugo

Les Miserables

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Hugo, Victor. Les Misérables. Vol. 3, Bruxelles: A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Cie, 1862, bk. 4, ch. 4.

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Current Citation

Hugo, Victor. Les Misérables. Wordsworth Editions, 1994, pt. 3, bk. 4, ch. 4.

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We shall die alone.

Blaise Pascal

Pensées

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Original Citation

Pascal, Blaise. Pensées [Thoughts]. Paris: Chez G. Desprez, 1670, no. 211.

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Current Citation

Pascal, Blaise. "Pensées." Pensées and Other Writings, edited by Anthony Levi, translated by Honor Levi. Oxford University Press, 2008, no. 211.

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The skeptical are the most credulous.

Blaise Pascal

Pensées

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Pascal, Blaise. Pensées [Thoughts]. Paris: Chez G. Desprez, 1670, no. 257

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Pascal, Blaise. "Pensées." Pensées and Other Writings, edited by Anthony Levi, translated by Honor Levi. Oxford University Press, 2008, no. 257.

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All for one, one for all.

Alexandre Dumas

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The Three Musketeers

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Dumas, Alexandre. Les Trois Mousquetaires [The Three Musketeers]. Le Siecle, Mar. 1844 -July 1844. Serial.

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Dumas, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers, translated by Richard Pevear. Penguin, 2014, ch. 9.

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Men blaspheme what they do not know.

Blaise Pascal

Pensées

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Pascal, Blaise. Pensées [Thoughts]. Paris: Chez G. Desprez, 1670, no. 556.

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Pascal, Blaise. "Pensées." Pensées and Other Writings, edited by Anthony Levi, translated by Honor Levi. Oxford University Press, 2008, no. 556.

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Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.

Voltaire

Candide

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Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 30.

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Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 30.

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In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract

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Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique [On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Law]. Amsterdam: Marc Michel Rey, 1762, bk. 3, ch. 4.

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Current Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Of the Social Contract." Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings, translated by Quintin Hoare. Penguin Classics, 2012, bk. 3, ch. 4.

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At every step the natural light which illuminates their path grows dimmer and less secure; and that, in spite of all their efforts, they have as yet only discovered a small number of conflicting notions, on which the mind of man has been tossed about for thousands of years, without either laying a firmer grasp on truth, or finding novelty even in its errors.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 2, London: Saunders and Otley, 1840, sect. 1, ch. 5.

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Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 2, sect. 1, ch. 5.

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