Ernest Renan Quotes

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.

Communism is in conflict with human nature.

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

Man makes holy what he believes.

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

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

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

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

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.

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