Ernest Renan

thumb|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. Ernest Renan (February 28, 1823 – October 12, 1892) was a French philosopher, playwright, historian, and writer. Quotes 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. Letter to his elder sister Henriette (1841). All agreed in rejecting that blasphemy, that Greece was ever a province of Asia, that the Greek spirit, so free, so objective, so limpid, could contain any element of the vague and obscure spirit of the Orient. “Des Religions de l’antiquité et leurs derniers historiens”, Mondes, vol. 23, no. 2 (1853) p. 835, quoted in Suzanne L. Marchand, German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion, Race, and Scholarship (Cambridge University Press, 2009). 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). [L]e communisme étant contraire à la nature humaine. Communism is in conflict with human nature. Les Apôtres (Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1866), p. 242. Histoire générale et système comparé des langues semitiques (1855) Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques (Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1855) The Semites did not understand the variety, the plurality, the genders in God: the word goddess in Hebrew is the most horrible barbarism. pp. 5–6. As translated in Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, trans. Sonia Wichmann (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 95. Nature, on the other hand, plays a very small role in the Semitic religions: the desert is monotheistic; sublime in its immense uniformity, it primarily revealed to man the idea of 'infinite.' p. 6. As translated in Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, trans. Sonia Wichmann (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 95. The true Semitic society is that of the tent and of the tribe. p. 13 As translated in Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, trans. Sonia Wichmann (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 96. Thus, the Semitic race is recognizable almost solely through negative characteristics: it has neither mythology, nor epic, nor science, nor philosophy, nor fiction, nor plastic arts, nor civil life; in sum an absence of complexity, of nuance, an exclusive sentiment of unity. p. 16. As translated in Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, trans. Sonia Wichmann (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 96. Alternate translation: Thus the Semitic race is to be recognized almost entirely by negative characteristics. It has neither mythology, nor epic, nor science, nor philosophy, nor fiction, nor plastic arts, nor civil life; in everything there is a complete absence of complexity, subtlety or feeling, except for unity. It has no variety in its monotheism. As translated in Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Vol. I (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987), p. 346. Vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus) (1863) The greatest men of a nation are often those whom it puts to death. Ch. 4 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. Ch. 5. Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors; by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion; and if religion is essential to humanity, he has by this deserved the Divine rank the world has accorded him. Ch. 5. 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. Ch. 5. [I]n morals, truth is but little prized when it is a mere sentiment, and only attains its full value when realized in the wirld as fact. Ch. 5. Jesus, in some respects, was an anarchist, for he had no idea of civil government. That government seems to him purely and simply an abuse. Ch. 7. Let us pardon him his hope of a vain apocalypse, and of a second coming in great triumph upon the clouds of heaven. Perhaps these were the errors of others rather than his own; and if it be true that he himself shared the general illusion, what matters it, since his dream rendered him strong against death, and sustained him in a struggle to which he might otherwise have been unequal? Ch. 17. All the great deeds of humanity have been accomplished in the name of absolute principles. Ch. 20. The Intellectual and Moral Reform of France (1871) thumb|The man of the people, in our countries, is always a fallen aristocrat; his hands are made to handle the sword rather than the laborer's tools. He prefers warring to working, that is, he returns to his original calling. La réforme intellectuelle et morale de la France (1871), in La réforme intellectuelle et morale, 2nd edition (1872) La colonisation en grand est une nécessité politique tout à fait de premier ordre. Une nation qui ne colonise pas est irrévocablement vouée au socialisme, à la guerre du riche et du pauvre. La conquête d'un pays de race inférieure par une race supérieure, qui s'y établit pour le gouverner, n'a rien de choquant. Colonization on a grand scale is a political necessity of absolutely the first order. A nation that does not colonize is irrevocably vowed to socialism, to war between rich and poor. The conquest of a nation of inferior race by a superior race, which establishes itself as the ruler, has nothing shocking about it. 92-93 We aspire not to equality but to domination. Countries inhabited by foreign races must become again countries of serfs, farm laborers, and factory workers. The goal is not to suppress inequities, but, rather, to amplify them and to make of them a matter of course. as translated by Asselin Charles, in "Colonial Discourse Since Christopher Columbus," Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2 (November 1995), p. 147 La régénération des races inférieures ou abâtardies par les races supérieures est dans l'ordre providentiel de l'humanité. L'homme du peuple est presque toujours chez nous un noble déclassé ; sa lourde main est bien mieux faite pour manier l'épée que l'outil servile. Plutôt que de travailler, il choisit de se battre, c'est- à-dire qu'il revient à son premier état. . The regeneration of the inferior or bastard races by the superior ones is consistent with God's plans for humanity. The man of the people, in our countries, is always a fallen aristocrat; his hands are made to handle the sword rather than the laborer's tools. He prefers warring to working, that is, he returns to his original calling. 93, as translated by Asselin Charles, in "Colonial Discourse Since Christopher Columbus," Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2 (November 1995), 147 Regere imperio populos, voilà notre vocation. To rule the imperial population, behold our vocation. 94 La nature a fait une race d'ouvriers ; c'est la race chinoise, d'une dextérité de main merveilleuse sans presque aucun sentiment d'honneur; gouvernez-la avec justice , en prélevant d'elle pour le bienfait d'un tel gouvernement un ample douaire au profit de la race conquérante, elle sera satisfaite ; une race de travailleurs de la terre, c'est le nègre ; soyez pour lui bon et humain, et tout sera dans l'ordre; -- une race de maîtres et de soldats, c'est la race européenne . Nature has made a race of workers; that is the Chinese race, with a marvelous dexterity of hand and hardly any feeling of honor; govern this race with justice by exacting from them through the competence of such government an ample dowry to the conquering race; the subordinate race will be satisfied; a race of workers of the earth, such is the Negro; let us be for him good and human, and everything will be in order -- a race of masters and soldiers, that is the European race. 94 The Future of Science (1890) The Future of Science: Ideas of 1848, trans. Albert D. Vandam (to page 284) and C. B. Pitman (from page 284). London: Chapman and Hall (1891). L’Avenir de la science was written in 1848–1849, but first published in 1890 with the subtitle Pensées de 1848. Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 3 (1949). Inequality is one of nature's written laws, it is the consequence of liberty and the liberty of the individual is a necessary postulate of human progress. Preface, p. xi. I would by far have an immoral people than a fanatical people for immoral masses are by no means difficult to deal with while fanatical masses reduce the world to a state of imbecility. Preface, p. xii. It has become a hackneyed truth by now to say that the world is governed by ideas. Ch. II, p. 17. There is nothing more motionless than the nonentity who has never lived the intellectual life, or the dullard who has never seen aught but one side of things. The way not to vary is not to think. Ch. III, p. 53. Science has no enemies save those who consider truth as useless and making no difference, and those who granting to truth its priceless value profess to get at it by other roads than those of criticism and rational investigation. Ch. IV, p. 68. "Endeavour to be beautiful, and then do at every moment that with which your heart will inspire you;" that is morality in a nutshell. Ch. X, pp. 166–167. Alternate translation: Be beautiful and then do at each moment whatever your heart may inspire you to do. This is the whole of morality. As translated in Irving Babbitt, Rousseau and Romanticism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919), Ch. IV, p. 133. The lofty serenity of science only becomes possible on the condition of impartial criticism, which without regard for the beliefs of a certain portion of humanity, handles its imperturbable instrument with the inflexibility of the geometrician, without anger and without pity. The critic never insults. Ch. XV, p. 257. Our principle is that we should regulate our present life just as if the future life did not exist, that it is never justifiable to refer to what is beyond in extenuation of any social condition or action. To appeal incessantly to the future life is to deaden the spirit of reform, to relax the zeal for the rational organization of humanity. Ch. XVII, p. 311. I, as a man of culture, do not find any evil in myself, and I am impelled spontaneously towards what seems to me the most noble. If all others had as much culture as myself, they would all, like myself, be incapable of doing an evil act. Then it might be said with truth: you are gods and sons of the Most High. Ch. XVII, p. 333. Paraphrase by Irving Babbitt: If all men were like himself, Renan declares, it would be appropriate to say of them: Ye are Gods and sons of the most high. Irving Babbitt, Rousseau and Romanticism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919), Ch. IV, pp. 133–134. Morality has hitherto been conceived in a very narrow spirit, as obedience to a law, as an internal struggle between contradictory laws. For my own part, I can declare that when I do right, I do not obey anyone, that I do not engage in any struggle or win any victory.... The man of elevation has only to follow the pleasant beat of his inward impulse. Ch. XVII, p. 333. Alternate translation: Morality has been conceived up to the present in a very narrow spirit as obedience to a law, as an inner struggle between opposite laws. As for me, I declare that when I do good I obey no one, I fight no battle and win no victory. The cultivated man has only to follow the delicious incline of his inner impulses. As translated in Irving Babbitt, Rousseau and Romanticism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919), Ch. IV, p. 133. (Some lines are omitted after "no victory", but there is no ellipse to indicate this.) Babbitt comments on the passages from p. 333 and the one from pp. 166–167: "No one … was ever more convinced of the beauty of his own soul than Renan." He whom God has touched will always be a being apart; he is, no matter what he does, out of place among men, he is known by a sign. Ch. XXIII, p. 459. Alternate translation: 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. Feuilles detachées (1892) Feuilles détachées (Paris: Calman Lévy, 1892) L'amour est la meilleure preuve de Dieu; c'est notre lien ombilical avec la nature, notre vraie communion avec l'infini. Preface, p. xxxiii. Love is the best proof of God; it is our umbilical cord to nature, our true communion with the infinite. La charme n'a pas à se justifier; son triomphe est la preuve de sa légitimité. "Emma Kosilis", p. 9. Charm doesn't need to justify itself; its triumph is proof of its legitimacy. Le grand amour aime la solitude: il n'a pas besoin du reste du monde. "Emma Kosilis", p. 31. True love loves solitude; it doesn't need the rest of the world. Les soucis positifs de notre temps ne font que rendre la poésie plus nécessaire. Elle est, avec la religion bien comprise, le baume qui adoucit et console, la voix qui dit en nous: Sursum corda! "Discors prononcé a l'inauguration de la statue de Brizeux" (9 September 1888), p. 63. The anxieties of our time only make poetry more necessary. Along with religion properly understood, it is the balm that soothes and consoles, the voice within us that says: Lift up your hearts! Jamais un musulman qui sait le français ne sera un musulman dangereux. "Conférence faite a l'Alliance pour la propagation de la langue française" (February 1888), p. 263. A Muslim who knows French will never be a dangerous Muslim. As translated in Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, trans. Sonia Wichmann (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 107. La gaieté a cela de très philosophique qu'elle semble dire à la nature que nous ne le prenons pas plus au sérieux qu'elle ne nous prend nous-mêmes. "Henri-Frédéric Amiel" (September 1884), p. 397. 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. As translated in William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1902), p. 37. Ernest Renan: a Critical Biography (1964) By H. W. Wardman, University of London, Athlone Press, 1964 I can die when I wish to: that is my elixir of life. The Republic. You may take great comfort from the fact that suffering inwardly for the sake of truth proves abundantly that one loves it and marks one out as being of the elect. Saint Sulpice and the Hidden God. Attributed Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation translated by Eric Hobsbawm on p. 12 of Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge University Press, 1992) from French original ("L'oubli et je dirai même l'erreur historique, sont un facteur essentiel de la formation d'une nation et c'est ainsi que le progrès des études historiques est souvent pour la nationalité un danger"), page 7-8 of Qu’est-ce qu’une nation ? To write well is to think well; there is no art of style distinct from the culture of the mind. The good writer is a complete mind, gifted with judgment, passion, imagination, and at the same time well trained. The inner qualities of rectitude, of brilliant geniality, are not given; instruction, wealth of information, fulness of knowledge, are acquired. Thus good training of the mind is the only school of good style. Wanting that, you have merely rhetoric and bad taste. As quoted in The Art of Authorship (1890) by George Bainton No place in the world has had a comparable role to that of the nameless mountain or valley where mankind first attained self-consciousness. Let us be proud … of the old patriarchs who, at the foot of Imaiis, laid the foundations of what we are and of what we shall become. Poliakov, L. (1974). The Aryan myth : a history of racist and nationalist ideas in Europe page 208 Quotes about Ernest Renan A famous student of history has bequeathed to us a definition of nationality which is worth attention: I refer to Ernest Renan, of whom George Meredith once said to me, while the great French critic was still living, that there was more in his head than in any other head in Europe. Renan tells us that "Man is enslaved neither by his race, nor by his language, nor by his religion, nor by the course of rivers, nor by the direction of mountain ranges. A great aggregation of men, sane of mind and warm of heart, creates a moral consciousness which is called a nation." Lord Haldane, Higher Nationality: A Study in Law and Ethics: An Address Delivered Before the American Bar Association at Montreal on 1st September 1913 (1913), p. 35 There has always been an element of the magical in the style of M. Ernest Renan—an art of saying things in a way to make them beautiful. Henry James, Atlantic Monthly (August 1883) External links Category:Academics from France Category:Philosophers from France Category:Playwrights from France Category:Literary critics Category:Historians from France Category:1823 births Category:1892 deaths