Believe in individual initiatives, in courage, in risk.
Emmanuel MacronRead
Europe and the world are waiting for us to defend the spirit of the enlightenment everywhere.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of upholding Enlightenment values globally.
Emmanuel Macron's quote highlights a call to action to protect and promote the ideals of the Enlightenment—such as reason, individualism, and freedom—in contemporary society. It suggests that both Europe and the wider world look to leaders and citizens to champion these principles, especially in times of uncertainty or challenge.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of democracy.
Believe in individual initiatives, in courage, in risk.
A romantic or classical view of the French approach would have been to say, 'It's a French company; let no one attack it. Let's block any merger. But the reality is Alcatel-Lucent is not a French company; it's a global company. Its main markets are China and the U.S. Its ownership is foreign; most of its managers aren't French.
Popularity isn't my compass. Unless it can help one to act, to be understood... that's what counts.
Our mission... it will be difficult, it will take time, it will be demanding for all men and women... will be to act in such a way that French people of the Muslim faith are always more proud of being French than of being Muslim.
I will defend Europe; it is our civilisation which is at stake... I will work to rebuild ties between Europe and its citizens.
Brexit is the other face of the refugee crisis - tensions that lead to stasis, external risks that lead to asymmetric shocks.
All religions lead to the same God, and all deserve the same respect. Anyone who chooses a religion is also choosing a collective way for worshipping and sharing the mysteries. Nevertheless, that person is the only one responsible for his or her actions along the way and has no right to shift responsibility for any personal decisions on to that religion.
Propaganda is a soft weapon; hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way.
Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?
The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around.
How to forgive the world for its beauty, which merely disguises its ugliness; for its gentleness, which merely cloaks its cruelty; for its illusion of continuity, seamlessly, as the night follows the day, so to speak- whereas in reality life is a series of brutal raptures, falling upon your defenseless hands, like the blows of a woodman's axe?
The highest reach of injustice is to be deemed just when you are not.
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