Edgar Quinet (1803–75) was a French poet, historian, and political philosopher. He made a significant contribution to the developing tradition of liberalism in France.
Born in Bourg-en-Bresse, Quinet studied at Strasbourg, Geneva, Paris, and Heidelberg. The excellent introduction to his translation of German philosopher Johann Herder’s Philosophy of History (1825) won him the friendship of French philosopher Victor Cousin and Jules Michelet.
Quinet’s reputation was established by his epic prose poem Ahasvérus (1833,) a spiritual imitation of the ancient mysteries. Appointed professor of foreign literature at Lyons in 1839, Quinet began the lectures, which formed his Le Génie des religions (1842, ‘On the Genius of Religions.’) Recalled to the College de France in Paris, he joined Michelet in attacking the Jesuits, and his lectures caused so much excitement that the government suppressed them in 1846.
During the French Revolution of 1848, Quinet took his place on the barricades, and, in the National Assembly, voted with the extreme left. After the coup d’état of 1851, he was exiled.
Quinet wrote the historical works La Révolution religieuse au XIXe siècle (1857, ‘The Religious Revolution of the 19th Century,’) Histoire de mes idées (1858, ‘History of My Ideas,’) Histoire de la campagne de 1815 (1862, ‘History of the Campaign of 1815,’) La Révolution (1865,) and L’Esprit nouveau (1874; “The New Spirit.”)
After the downfall of Napoleon III, Quinet returned to Paris. He sat in the National Assemblies at Bordeaux and Versailles and aroused great enthusiasm through his speeches.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Edgar Quinet
What are all political and social institutions, but always a religion, which in realizing itself, becomes incarnate in the world?
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Society
Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Ambition
Philosophy may be dodged, eloquence cannot.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Philosophers, Philosophy
Today as in the time of Pliny and Columella, the hyacinth flourishes in Wales, the periwinkle in Illyria, the daisy on the ruins of Numantia; while around them cities have changed their masters and their names, collided and smashed, disappeared into nothingness, their peaceful generations have crossed down the ages as fresh and smiling as on the days of battle.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Flowers
I mistrust the satisfaction which makes a display of the possession of Infinity; that is called fatuity in philosophic terms.
—Edgar Quinet
It is certain that if you would have the whole secret of a people, you must enter into the intimacy of their religion.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Religion
What we share with another ceases to be our own.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Sharing, Gifts
The law of humanity ought to be composed of the past, the present, and the future, that we bear within us; whoever possesses but one of these terms, has but a fragment of the law of the moral world.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Humanity, Humankind
Universal orthodoxy is enriched by every new discovery of truth: what at first appeared universal, by wishing to stand still, sooner or later becomes a sect.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Religion
An effeminate education weakens both the mind and the body.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Education
Science is Christian, not when it condemns itself to the letter of things, but when, in the infinitely little, it discovers as many mysteries and as much depth and power as in the infinitely great.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Science, Scientists
Time is the fairest and toughest judge.
—Edgar Quinet
Topics: Time, Time Management
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand French Writer, Statesman
Alexis de Tocqueville French Historian, Political Scientist
Voltaire French Philosopher, Author
Jean Cocteau French Poet, Artist
Gerard de Nerval French Poet, Writer
Alfred de Musset French Poet, Playwright
Marguerite Duras French Novelist, Playwright
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon French Philosopher
Alexandre Dumas pere French Novelist, Playwright
Blaise Cendrars Swiss Poet, Writer