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 ?
More quotes by Ernest Renan
It has become a hackneyed truth by now to say that the world is governed by ideas.
The greatest men of a nation are often those whom it puts to death.
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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.
History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!
Attribution
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ernest Renan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.