Ernest Renan Quotes on Knowledge
Joseph Ernest Renan was a French Semitic philologist, historian, and philosopher of religion and one of the most influential and controversial public intellectuals of nineteenth-century France. This page collects quotes attributed to Ernest Renan on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Ernest Renan:
“Science gives ever-better questions, never final answers.”
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“Letter to his elder sister Henriette (1841).”
To be free in an age like ours, one must be in a position of authority. That in itself would be enough to make me ambitious. -
“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.”
Orlando, in Caliban , act 2, sc. 1 (1878). -
“Orlando, in Caliban , act 2, sc. 1 (1878).”
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. -
“Les Apôtres (Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1866), p. 242.”
[L]e communisme étant contraire à la nature humaine.