Ernest Renan Quotes
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The only way of salvation for the world is by returning to thy allegiance.... Firm in my faith, I shall have force to withstand my evil counsellors, my skepticism, which leads me to doubt of the people, my restless spirit which, after truth has been brought to light, impels to go on searching for it.
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The prayer of the agnostic: "O God, if there is a God, save my soul if I have a soul."
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Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation.
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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.
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Muslims are the first victims of Islam. To liberate a Muslim from his religion is the best service that one can render him!
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True Christianity, which will last forever, comes from the gospel words of Christ not from the epistles of Paul. The writings of Paul have been a danger and a hidden rock, the causes of the principal defects of Christian theology.
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I can die when I wish to: that is my elixir of life.
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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.
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Sometimes they reasoned thus: "The Messiah ought to do such a thing, now Jesus is the Messiah, therefore Jesus has done such a thing." At other times, by an inverse process, it was said: "Such a thing has happened to Jesus; now Jesus is the Messiah; therefore such a thing was to happen to the Messiah."
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Human cruelty took the form of a pact with the deity. A solemn oath was made to kill everything, in which people forbade themselves any display of reason or compassion. A city or a land was devoted to destruction and it was believed an insult to God if one did not observe the abominable oath.
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The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.
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Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
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It is evident, indeed, that such a doctrine, taken by itself in a literal manner, had no future. The world, in continuing to exist, caused it to crumble. One generation of man at the most was the limit of its endurance. The faith of the first Christian generation is intelligible, but the faith of the second generation is no longer so. After the death of John, or of the last survivor, whoever he might be, of the group which had seen the master, the word of Jesus was convicted of falsehood.
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The ignorance of French society gives one a rough sense of the infinite.
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All history is incomprehensible without Christ.
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Man makes holy what he believes as he makes beautiful what he loves.
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Jesus , in some respects, was an anarchist, for he had no idea of civil government . That government seems to him purely and simply an abuse. A great social revolution, in which rank will be overturned, in which all authority in this world will be humiliated, was his dream .
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The epic disappeared along with the age of personal heroism; there can be no epic with artillery.
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Morality has been conceived up to the present in a very narrow spirit, as obedience to a law, as inner struggle between opposite laws. As for me, I declare that when I do good I obey no one, I fight no battle and win no victory. The cultivated person has only to follow the delicious incline of his or her inner impulses. Be beautiful and then do at each moment whatever your heart may inspire you to do. This is the whole of morality.
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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.
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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.
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A nation has a soul, a spiritual principle. One is in the past, the other in the present. One is the possession of a rich legacy of memories; the other is the desire to live together and to value the common heritage.
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To be able to think freely, a man must be certain that no consequence will follow whatever he writes.
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A nation is a body of people who have done great things together.