Ernest Renan Men Quotations

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.

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.

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.

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

The man who obeys is nearly always better than the man who commands.

The virtue of man is, in a word, the great proof of God.

To be able to think freely, a man must be certain that no consequence will follow whatever he writes.

To act well in this world, one must sacrifice all personal desires. The people who become missionaries of religious thought have no other Fatherland than this thought. Man is not on Earth merely to be happy, nor even simply to be honest. He is here to realize great things for humanity, to attain nobility, and to surmount the vulgarity of nearly every individual.

Muslims are the first victims of Islam. Many times I have observed in my travels in the Orient that fanaticism comes from a small number of dangerous men who maintain the others in the practice of religion by terror. To liberate the Muslim from his religion is the best service one can render him.