7 quotes
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.
Vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus) (1863)
The greatest men of a nation are often those whom it puts to death.
Vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus) (1863)
All the great deeds of humanity have been accomplished in the name of absolute principles.
Vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus) (1863)
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.
Vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus) (1863)
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.
Vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus) (1863)
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?
Vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus) (1863)
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.
Vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus) (1863)