Hippolyte Taine Born : April 21, 1828 Died : March 5, 1893 Browse All Authors Top 20 quotes by Hippolyte Taine I've met many thinkers and many cats, but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior. Hippolyte Taine cat witty funny The production of a work of art is determined by the material and intellectual climate in which a man lives and dies. Hippolyte Taine intellectual men art Kindly politeness is the slow fruit of advanced reflection; it is a sort of humanity and kindliness applied to small acts and every day discourse: it bids man soften towards others, and forget himself for the sake of others: it constrains genuine nature, which is selfish and gross. Hippolyte Taine selfish reflection men We study ourselves three weeks, we love each other three months, we squabble three years, we tolerate each other thirty years, and then the children start all over again. Hippolyte Taine three children years Four varieties in society: lovers, the ambitious, observers, and fools. The fools are the happiest. Hippolyte Taine ambitious fool four Amid this vast and overwhelming space and in these boundless solar archipelagoes, how small is our own sphere, and the earth, what a grain of sand! Hippolyte Taine spheres space earth His tongue is by turns a sponge, a brush, a comb. He cleans himself, he smooths himself, he knows what is proper. Hippolyte Taine smooth tongue cat History is nothing but a problem of mechanics applied to psychology. Hippolyte Taine psychology problem history Man may be considered as a superior species of animal that produces philosophies and poems in about the same way a silkworm produces their cocoons and bees their hives. Hippolyte Taine animal men philosophy There are four types of men in the world: lovers, opportunists, lookers-on, and imbeciles. The happiest are the imbeciles. Hippolyte Taine stupidity men world The search for causes must come after the collection of facts. Hippolyte Taine causes history facts I wish to reproduce things as they are or as they would be even if I myself did not exist. Hippolyte Taine ifs would-be wish To have a true idea of man or of life, one must have stood himself on the brink of suicide, or on the door-sill of insanity, at least once. Hippolyte Taine suicide doors men Change a virtue in its circumstances find it becomes a vice; change a vice in its circumstances, and it becomes a virtue. Regard the same quality from two sides; on one it is a fault, on the other a merit. The essential of a man is found concealed far below these moral badges. Hippolyte Taine two-sides quality men A fixed idea is like the iron rod which sculptors put in their statues. It impales and sustains. Hippolyte Taine fixed iron ideas There are as many kinds of modesty as there are races. To the English woman it is a duty; to the French woman a propriety. Hippolyte Taine french-woman modesty race The more I study the things of the mind the more mathematical I find them. In them as in mathematics it is a question of quantities; they must be treated with precision. I have never had more satisfaction than in proving this in the realms of art, politics and history. Hippolyte Taine science history art In the stormy current of life characters are weights or floats which at one time make us glide along the bottom, and at another maintain us on the surface. Hippolyte Taine weight inspirational character For thirty centuries, from her sacred seat the cat looked down, and crouching at her feet, beheld the race of conquering Pharaohs kneel. Hippolyte Taine cat race feet I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior. Hippolyte Taine superior cats wisdom pet
