Romain Rolland quotes

Romain Rolland was a French writer, historian, and pacifist, celebrated for his novels and biographical works. His commitment to humanism and social justice greatly influenced European thought in the early 20th century. He became a Nobel Prize laureate in Literature and an influential advocate for peace. Here are 52 of his quotes:

One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.

Romain Rolland

I know at last what distinguishes man from animals; financial worries.

Romain Rolland

I imagine that a hero is a man who does what he can. The others do not do it.

Romain Rolland

Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.

Romain Rolland

I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so.

Romain Rolland

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.

Romain Rolland

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.

Romain Rolland

All these young millionaires were anarchists, of course: when a man possesses everything it is the supreme luxury for him to deny society: for in that way he can evade his responsibilities.

Romain Rolland

There is only one necessary condition for the emergence of a new theatre, that the stage and auditorium should be open to the masses, should be able to contain a people and the actions of a people.

Romain Rolland

There are some dead who are more alive than the living." "No, no! It would be more true to say that there are some who are more dead than the dead." "Maybe. In any case there are old things which are still young." "Then if they are still young we can find them for ourselves.... But I don't believe it. What has been good once never is good again.

Romain Rolland

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.

Romain Rolland

If there is one place on the face of 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.

Romain Rolland

Discussion is impossible with someone who claims not to seek the truth, but already to possess it.

Romain Rolland

To understand everything is to hate nothing.

Romain Rolland

The continual endeavor of man should be to lessen the sum of suffering and cruelty: that is the first duty of humanity.

Romain Rolland

I, too, shall wake again.

Romain Rolland

Be reverent before the dawning day. Do not think of what will be in a year, or in ten years. Think of to-day.

Romain Rolland

If a man is to shed the light of the sun upon other men, he must first of all have it within himself.

Romain Rolland

In the great philosophy of Brahma, such violent turns of the scale are quite unknown. It embraces vast stretches of time, cycles of human ages, whose successive lives gravitate in concentric circles, and travel ever slowly towards the center....

Romain Rolland

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.

Romain Rolland

Thousands of animals (now billions) are butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. It cries vengeance upon all the human race.

Romain Rolland

His struggles were a part of the great fight of the worlds. His overthrow was a momentary episode, immediately repaired. Just as he fought for all, so all fought for him. They shared his trials, he shared their glory.

Romain Rolland