"Like those dreams that have pleased us. They escape us and we vainly try to hold onto them."

Joseph Joubert Literature See all quotes by Joseph Joubert →

React to this quote

More by Joseph Joubert

See all

“All these philosophers are no more than surgeons.”

“In such times, if you want neither to lie nor to wound, you are reduced to being silent.”

“Fortunately, when he lacks reason he also lacks words.”

“Stars more beautiful to the eyes than the telescope that robs them of their illusions.”

“The punishment of those who have loved women too much is to love them forever.”

“Of what must be said and what must not be said. The importance of knowing.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Faced with problems and disappointments, many people will try to escape from their responsibility: escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indi…"

— Pope John Paul II

Religion1920–2005

#love

"There appears to be an innate human tendency to underestimate the capacity of those who do not belong to "our" group. Those who do not share our background cannot have our ability. Foreigners, people …"

— Robert Maynard Hutchins

Politics1929–1945

#Human Nature

"Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a public duty."

— Ulysses S. Grant

Politics1822–1885

#family

"Spinoza, the most logical and consistent of atheists—I mean of those who deny the persistence of individual consciousness through indefinite future time—and at the same time the most pious, Spinoza de…"

— Baruch Spinoza

Philosophy1632–1677

#time