Man makes holy what he believes as he makes beautiful what he loves.
Interpretation
Our beliefs and loves shape our perceptions of holiness and beauty.
This quote by Ernest Renan suggests that individuals have the power to transform their beliefs and passions into sacredness and aesthetic appreciation. It emphasizes the idea that what we hold dear—what we love and believe—defines our understanding of holiness, infusing the mundane with meaning and beauty through our subjective experiences and perspectives.
In practice
In a speech on personal values, one might use this quote to illustrate how our beliefs shape our realities.
None of the miracles with which ancient histories are filled, occurred under scientific conditions. Observation never once contradicted, teaches us that miracles occur only in periods and countries in which they are believed in and before persons disposed to believe in them.
Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
He whom God has touched will always be a being apart: he is, whatever he may do, a stranger among men; he is marked by a sign.
Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things.
The talent of historians lies in their creating a true ensemble out of facts which are but half true.
Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console.
For me Christ was not to be bought for thirty pieces of silver but with my heart's blood. We buy not cheap in this market.
I no longer wield the power of the office for the government of the church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, within St. Peter's bounds. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as pope, shall be a great example in this for me. He showed us the way to a life which, active or passive, belongs wholly to the work of God.
A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.
The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood.
At their best, religious and spiritual communities help us discover this pure and naked spiritual encounter. At their worst, they simply make us more ashamed, pressuring us to cover up more, pushing us to further enhance our image with the best designer labels and latest spiritual fads, weighing us down with layer upon layer of heavy, uncomfortable, pretentious, well-starched religiosity.
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