The Philosopher
Ernest Renan
The face
The background
- Nationality:
- French
- Schools:
- Continental philosophy
- Branchs:
- Semitic languages, Semitic civilizations, History of religion, Philology, Philosophy of religion, Political philosophy, Biblical criticism
- Period:
- 19th-century philosophy
The synopsis
The works
Vie de Jésus
Qu'est-ce qu'une Nation?
The quotes
The liberty of the individual is a necessary postulate of human progress.
When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
Our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking.
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.
The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death.
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.
No idea can succeed except at the expense of sacrifice; no one ever escapes without enduring strain from the struggle of life.
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.
Man makes holy what he believes.
Communism is in conflict with human nature.
Blessed are the blind, for they know not enough to ask why.
God, if there is a God, take my soul, if I have a soul.
Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things.
Religion is not a popular error; it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.
I can die when I wish to: that is my elixir of life.
Man is not on this earth merely to be happy, or even to be simply honest. He is there to realize great things for humanity, to attain nobility and to surmount the vulgarity of almost everybody.
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.
All history is incomprehensible without Christ.
All the great things of humanity have been accomplished in the name of absolute principles.
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.