Ernest Renan

The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.

No idea can succeed except at the expense of sacrifice; no one ever escapes without enduring strain from the struggle of life.

The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death.

A myth is a lie that conceals or reveals a truth. But if it reveals even a strand of history or truth, that's what gets my adrenaline going.

I was raised in the Baptist church... but I didn't really have a real committed experience with Christ until my father died.

All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.