Ernest Renan
(28 Feb 1823 - 2 Oct 1892)
French philosopher, historian and scholar.
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Science Quotes by Ernest Renan (1 quote)
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with facts for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life. What would we not give to make it possible for us to steal a look at a book that will serve primary schools in a hundred years?
— Ernest Renan
In Souvenirs dEnfance et de Jeunesse (1846), Preface, 13. From the original French, Le simple ้colier sait maintenant des v้rit้s pour lesquelles Archim่de e๛t sacrifi้ sa vie. Que ne donnerions-nous pas pour quil nous f๛t possible de jeter un coup dil furtif sur tel livre qui servira aux ้coles primaires dans cent ans?
Quotes by others about Ernest Renan (2)
The nineteenth century is a turning point in history, simply on account of the work of two men, Darwin and Renan, the one the critic of the Book of Nature, the other the critic of the books of God. Not to recognise this is to miss the meaning of one of the most important eras in the progress of the world.
In Essay, 'The Critic as Artist With Some Remarks Upon the Importance of Doing Nothing and Discussing Everything', published in essay collection Intentions (1891), 174.
Now and then, in the course of the century, a great man of science, like Darwin; a great poet, like Keats; a fine critical spirit, like M. Renan; a supreme artist, like Flaubert, has been able to isolate himself, to keep himself out of reach of the clamorous claims of others, to stand under the shelter of the wall, as Plato puts it, and so to realise the perfection of what was in him, to his own incomparable gain, and to the incomparable and lasting gain of the whole world.
In Sebastian Melmoth (1908), 133-134.