1001Philosophers

Hippolyte Taine Quotes on Knowledge

Hippolyte Adolphe Taine was a French historian, literary critic, and philosopher and the principal exponent of positivism in nineteenth-century French humanistic scholarship. This page collects quotes attributed to Hippolyte Taine on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • Attributed to Hippolyte Taine:

    “Race, milieu, and moment determine the form of every cultural product.”

  • Attributed to Hippolyte Taine:

    “The historian must approach human facts with the methods of natural science.”

  • Attributed to Hippolyte Taine:

    “Literature is the documentary expression of an age.”

  • Attributed to Hippolyte Taine:

    “What we call genius is the convergence of many ordinary forces.”