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Good humor is a philosophic state of mind it seems to say to nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us.

Ernest Renan

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Ernest Renan
Age: 69 †
Born: 1823
Born: February 28
Died: 1892
Died: October 12
Archaeologist
Historian
Literary Critic
Orientalist
Philologist
Philosopher
Professor
Theologian
Writer
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More quotes by Ernest Renan

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Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
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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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A grain of sand leads to the fall of a mountain when the moment has come for the mountain to fall.
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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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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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History is as much an art as a science.
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Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation.
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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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Religion is not a popular error it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.
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Our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking.
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No idea can succeed except at the expense of sacrifice no one ever escapes without enduring strain from the struggle of life.
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The virtue of man is, in a word, the great proof of God.
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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.
Ernest Renan
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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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As soon as sacrifice becomes a duty and necessity to mankind. I see no limit to the horizon which opens before him.
Ernest Renan
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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.
Ernest Renan
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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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The prayer of the agnostic: O God, if there is a God, save my soul if I have a soul.
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All history is incomprehensible without Christ.
Ernest Renan
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Every rebel is, with us, more or less a soldier who has missed his vocation, a being made for a heroic life ... The European race is a race of masters and soldiers. If you reduce this noble race to the work in a slave's prison like Negroes or Chinamen, it will rebel.
Ernest Renan