Romain Rolland

Romain Rolland was a French writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 after the publication of his major work, Jean-Christophe.

Sourced

• I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so.
  • Inter arma Caritas, Journal de Genève (30 October 1914)

• If there is one place on the face of the earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India....For more than 30 centuries, the tree of vision, with all its thousand branches and their millions of twigs, has sprung from this torrid land, the burning womb of the Gods. It renews itself tirelessly showing no signs of decay.
  • Life of Ramakrishna (1929)

• The true Vedantic spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas. It possesses absolute liberty and unrivalled courage among religions with regard to the facts to be observed and the diverse hypotheses it has laid down for their coordination. Never having been hampered by a priestly order, each man has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual explanation of the spectacle of the universe.
  • Life of Vivekananda (1944)

• Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.
  • As quoted in The Great Quotations (1960) by George Seldes, p. 864

• I know at last what distinguishes man from animals; financial worries.
  • As quoted in The Anchor Book of French quotations, with English Translations (1963) by Norbert Guterman

• Every man who is truly a man must learn to be alone in the midst of all others, and if need be against all others.
  • As quoted in A Book of French Quotations‎ (1963) by Norbert Guterman, p. 365

• In politics, he has always been a republican with advanced Socialist sympathies, and internationalist at heart, and, as they said in the eighteenth century, a "citizen of the world." He has always fought social injustice. In art, he loves, above all, Beethoven, Shakespeare, and Goethe... Rembrandt is the painter dearest to him. But his chosen country is Italy.
  • On himself, as quoted in World Authors 1900-1950 (1996)

• One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.
  • As quoted in On Relationships: A Book for Teenagers (1999) by Kimberly Kirberger

Jean-Christophe (1904 - 1912)

As translated by Gilbert Cannan (1913)

• It is the artist's business to create sunshine when the sun fails.
  • "The Market-Place" Part I

• Be reverent before the dawning day. Do not think of what will be in a year, or in ten years. Think of to-day. Leave your theories. All theories, you see, even those of virtue, are bad, foolish, mischievous. Do not abuse life. Live in to-day. Be reverent towards each day. Love it, respect it, do not sully it, do not hinder it from coming to flower. Love it even when it is gray and sad like to-day. Do not be anxious. See. It is winter now. Everything is asleep. The good earth will awake again. You have only to be good and patient like the earth. Be reverent. Wait. If you are good, all will go well. If you are not, if you are weak, if you do not succeed, well, you must be happy in that. No doubt it is the best you can do. So, then, why will? Why be angry because of what you cannot do? We all have to do what we can. . . . Als ich kann."
  • Gottfried to Jean-Christophe in "Youth" Part 3 : Ada

• You are a vain fellow. You want to be a hero. That is why you do such silly things. A hero! ... I don't quite know what that is: but, you see, I imagine that a hero is a man who does what he can. The others do not do it.
  • Gottfried to Jean-Christophe in "Youth" Part 3 : Ada
  • Variant translation: A hero is one who does what he can. The others don't.
    • As quoted in A Book of French Quotations‎ (1963) by Norbert Guterman, p. 365

• I, too, shall wake again.
  • Jean-Christophe to himself in "Youth" Part 3 : Ada

Journey Within (1947)

• Never do I hesitate to look squarely at the unexpected face that every passing hour unveils to us, and to sacrifice the false images of it formed in advance, however dear they may be. In me, the love of life in general predominates over love of my own life (that, indeed, would never have sufficed to bear me up). May life herself speak! However inadequate I may be in listening to her, and in repeating her words, I shall try to record them, even if they contradict my most secret desires. In all that I write, may her will, not mine, be done!
  • Invitation to the Journey

• No one ever reads a book. He reads himself through books, either to discover or to control himself. And the most objective books are the most deceptive. The greatest book is not the one whose message engraves itself on the brain, as a telegraphic message engraves itself on the ticker-tape, but the one whose vital impact opens up other viewpoints, and from writer to reader spreads the fire that is fed by the various essences, until it becomes a vast conflagration leaping from forest to forest.
  • Ch. 2 : The Three Revelations