69 Quotes by Ernest Renan

All the great things of humanity have been accomplished in the name of absolute principles.

Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things.

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

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.

Blessed are the blind, for they know not enough to ask why.

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.

God, if there is a God, take my soul, if I have a soul.

No idea can succeed except at the expense of sacrifice; no one ever escapes without enduring strain from the struggle of life.

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.