Ernest Renan Quotes

• War is a condition of progress; the whip-cut that prevents a country from going to sleep and forces satisfied mediocrity to shake off its apathy.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Uncategorized

• O L-rd, if there is a L-rd, save my soul, if I have a soul.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Belief

• All history is incomprehensible without Christ.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in History, Uncategorized

  Tags in Incomprehensible

• All the great things of humanity have been accomplished in the name of absolute principles.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Humanity

  Tags in Principles

• 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.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in God

• 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.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Heroism, Reflection

• Our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Opinions, Fixed

• No idea can succeed except at the expense of sacrifice; no one ever escapes without enduring strain from the struggle of life.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Succeed, Struggle

• I can die when I wish to: that is my elixir of life.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Wish, Die

• Blessed are the blind, for they know not enough to ask why.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Blessed, Blind

• Communism is in conflict with human nature.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Nature

  Tags in Communism, Human

• Man makes holy what he believes.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Holy, Man

• 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.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Truth

  Tags in Morals

• Religion is not a popular error; it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Religion, Truth

• Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Remember, Alone

• The liberty of the individual is a necessary postulate of human progress.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Progress

  Tags in Liberty, Human

• The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Death

  Tags in Greatest, Men

• 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.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Fact, Succeed, Men

• The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Life, Truth

  Tags in Schoolboy, Familiar

• When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.

  Ernest Renan

  Topics in Life

  Tags in People, Complain

Ernest Renan (21)

Birth:	28th February, 1823
Death:	2nd October, 1892
Nationality:	French
Profession:	Historian, Philosopher, Writer

About

Joseph Ernest Renan was born in Tréguier, Brittany, France. He was a French philosopher, historian, and writer. He is best known for his influential historical works on early Christianity, and his political theories, especially concerning nationalism and national identity. He wrote several books include: What is a Nation?, The life of Jesus, history of the origins of Christianity, Renan's life of Jesus, The future of science, Christ in Art, and The apostles.

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