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

More quotes by 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.
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Our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking.
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The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death.
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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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The epic disappeared along with the age of personal heroism there can be no epic with artillery.
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All history is incomprehensible without Christ.
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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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As soon as sacrifice becomes a duty and necessity to mankind. I see no limit to the horizon which opens before him.
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History is as much an art as a science.
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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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Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation.
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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
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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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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.
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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
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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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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 virtue of man is, in a word, the great proof of God.
Ernest Renan
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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.
Ernest Renan
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Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
Ernest Renan