Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Pierre Bayle (French Philosopher)

Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) was a French Protestant philosopher, critic, and lexicographer. His most famous work, Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, was condemned by the French Roman Catholic church and the French Reformed Church of Rotterdam for purposely attacking orthodox Christian beliefs.

Born in Carla-le-Comte, Ariège Department, Bayle studied under the Jesuits at Toulouse. He turned Catholic for a while but reconverted to Calvinism and became a professor of philosophy at Sedan in 1675.

Forced into exile, Bayle became a professor at the University of Rotterdam (1681.) He started a popular journal of literary criticism, Nouvelles de la république des lettres (1684, ‘News from the Republic of Letters.’) Bayle wrote a vigorous defense of liberalism and religious toleration but was dismissed from the university in 1693, attacked by the theologian Pierre Jurieu as an agent of France and an enemy of Protestantism.

Bayle then concentrated on his major work, the encyclopedic Dictionnaire Historique et Critique (1697, ‘Historical and Critical Dictionary,’) consisting of biographical entries on important people of biblical, classical, and modern history. The discursive footnotes contained many contentious theological and philosophical questions subjected to rigorous critical analysis. Bayle was persecuted for the work’s alleged profanity and for his claim in it that morality was independent of religion.

Bayle’s skeptical philosophy significantly influenced the subsequent growth and development of the 18th-century European Age of Enlightenment. Bayle is commonly regarded as a forerunner of the Encyclopédistes of the mid-18th century.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Pierre Bayle

It is pure illusion to think that an opinion that passes down from century to century, from generation to generation, may not be entirely false
Pierre Bayle
Topics: Opinions

It is thus tolerance that is the source of peace, and intolerance that is the source of disorder and squabbling.
Pierre Bayle
Topics: Tolerance, Disorder

There is no less invention in aptly applying a thought found in a book, than in being the first author of the thought.
Pierre Bayle
Topics: Quotations

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