Civilization is first of all a moral thing. Without truth, respect for duty, love of neighbor, and virtue, everything is destroyed. The morality of a society is alone the basis of civilization.
Henri Frederic AmielRead
[I]t is truth alone-scientific, established, proved, and rational truth-which is capable of satisfying nowadays the awakened minds of all classes. We may still say perhaps, 'faith governs the world,'-but the faith of the present is no longer in revelation or in the priest-it is in reason and in science.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of truth, reason, and science over faith in religious or traditional beliefs.
Henri Frederic Amiel argues that in modern times, the quest for knowledge and understanding relies on empirical truths proven by science, rather than on faith or religious revelation. He suggests that while faith has historically been a guiding principle for humanity, the contemporary world demands a reliance on reason and scientific evidence to satisfy an increasingly enlightened populace.
Themes
TruthReasonScienceFaithKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on the importance of science education, this quote serves to highlight the necessity of grounding our understanding in empirical evidence.
More from Henri Frederic Amiel
All quotes →Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, wants to re-establish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys.
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Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.
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Any landscape is a condition of the spirit.
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True love is that which ennobles the personality, fortifies the heart, and sanctifies the existence.
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It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into the well.
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