Page:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/174

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38. The ground of all error in attitudes and opinions is—Confusing the ends with the means.

39. Most revolutionaries don't know exactly what they want for sure—structure or destruction.

40. Revolutions evidence themselves in opposition to the true energy of a nation. It has an energy coming from disease and weakness—which seems more violent than the true one—but unfortunately ends in an even deeper weakness.

41. When one judges a nation, one usually judges based only on what is distinctly visible, the most striking part of the nation.

42. No argument is so disadvantageous to the old regime than the one that can draw from the disproportionate strength of the organs of state, from which a revolution comes to be produced. It's administration must have been greatly defective, that the many parts could be defective and such a persistent weakness could take root everywhere.

43. The weaker a part is, all the more it tends toward disorganization and inflammation.

44. What are slaves? Completely weakened, compromised people. What are sultans? Slaves excited by violent irritation. How does it end with the sultan and slaves?—Violently—as easily for those who are slaves, so easily for those who are sultans, i.e., phrenetic delirium. How can the slave be cured? Through very scrupulous emancipation and enlightenment. One must treat them like a person nearly frozen to death.