Ernest Renan Quotes
Muslims are the first victims of Islam. To liberate a Muslim from his religion is the best service that one can render him!
Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
Good humor is a philosophic state of mind; it seems to say to nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us.
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, — such are the essential conditions for the making of a people.
No idea can succeed except at the expense of sacrifice; no one ever escapes without enduring strain from the struggle of life.
To be able to think freely, a man must be certain that no consequence will follow whatever he writes.
When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
It is through Christianity that Judaism has really conquered the world. Christianity is the masterpiece of Judaism.
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.
A grain of sand leads to the fall of a mountain when the moment has come for the mountain to fall.
The talent of historians lies in their creating a true ensemble out of facts which are but half true.
As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling men will be lost.
As soon as sacrifice becomes a duty and necessity to mankind. I see no limit to the horizon which opens before him.
All the great things of humanity have been accomplished in the name of absolute principles.
The epic disappeared along with the age of personal heroism; there can be no epic with artillery.
To conceive the good, in fact, is not sufficient; it must be made to succeed among men. To accomplish this less pure paths must be followed.
He whom God has touched will always be a being apart: he is, whatever he may do, a stranger among men; he is marked by a sign.
In morals, truth is but little prized when it is a mere sentiment, and only attains its full value when realized in the world as fact.
You may take great comfort from the fact that suffering inwardly for the sake of truth proves abundantly that one loves it and marks one out as being of the elect.
His glory Jesus Christ does not consist in beingplaced without the confines of history; a more real worship is paid to him, by showing that the whole of history is incomprehensible without him.
Religion is not a popular error; it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.
Islam has been liberal when it has been weak and violent when it has been strong.
The oblivion, and I'll say even the historical error, are a key factor in the creation of a nation, to the extent that the progress of historical studies is often a danger to nationality.