History is a myth that men agree to believe.
Napoleon BonaparteRead
For my part, it is not the mystery of the incarnation which I discover in religion, but the mystery of social order, which associates with heaven that idea of equality which prevents the rich from destroying the poor
Interpretation
This quote highlights the relationship between religion and social equality.
Napoleon Bonaparte emphasizes that, rather than focusing on religious mysteries, it is the concept of social order that intrigues him. He argues that religion promotes an idea of equality that serves as a check against the disparity between the rich and the poor, consequently preventing social injustices and conflicts.
In practice
In a speech about the role of religion in promoting equality in society.
History is a myth that men agree to believe.
One must indeed be ignorant of the methods of genius to suppose that it allows itself to be cramped by forms. Forms are for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that mediocrity can act only according to routine. Ability takes its flight unhindered.
One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope.
We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well.
Our First Amendment expresses a far different calculus for regulating speech than for regulating nonexpressive conduct and that is as it should be. The right to swing your fist should end at the tip of my nose, but your right to express your ideas should not necessarily end at the lobes of my ears.
The world begins anew with every birth, my father used to say. He forgot to say, with every death it ends. Or did not think he needed to. Because for a goodly part of his life he worked in a graveyard.
When I was writing The Satanic Verses, if you had asked me about the phenomenon that we all now know as radical Islam, I wouldn't have had much to say. As recently as the mid-1980s, it didn't seem to be a big deal.
Humanist thinkers such as Rousseau convinced us that our own feelings and desires were the ultimate source of meaning and that our free will was, therefore, the highest authority of all.
If I lose at play, I blaspheme; if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So, God is always the loser.
Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.
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