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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.

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
Spiritual
Memories
Desire
Principles
War
Present
Heritage
Past
Rich
Legacy
Together
Nations
Possession
Soul
Common
Principle
Live
Values
Value
Peace
Nation

More quotes by Ernest Renan

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Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation.
Ernest Renan
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It is through Christianity that Judaism has really conquered the world. Christianity is the masterpiece of Judaism.
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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.
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Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
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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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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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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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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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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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The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death.
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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.
Ernest Renan
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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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A nation is a body of people who have done great things together.
Ernest Renan
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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.
Ernest Renan
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History is as much an art as a science.
Ernest Renan
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Our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking.
Ernest Renan
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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.
Ernest Renan
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To be able to think freely, a man must be certain that no consequence will follow whatever he writes.
Ernest Renan
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Religion is not a popular error it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.
Ernest Renan
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The prayer of the agnostic: O God, if there is a God, save my soul if I have a soul.
Ernest Renan