All the great things of humanity have been accomplished in the name of absolute principles.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
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.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
Communism is in conflict with human nature.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
I can die when I wish to: that is my elixir of life.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
Man makes holy what he believes.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
Religion is not a popular error; it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
The liberty of the individual is a necessary postulate of human progress.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
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.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
– Joseph Ernest Renan
The ignorance of French society gives one a rough sense of the infinite.