“They (i. e., the peasants) could imagine no future more grim than their past.”
Source: She Is the Darkness (1997), Chapter 86 (p. 575)
“The more I know, the more nearly is my faith that of the Breton peasant. Could I but know all I would have the faith of a Breton peasant woman.”
As quoted in "Louis Pasteur" in The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
As quoted in Letter to an Atheist (2007) by Michael Patrick Leahy, p. 61
His descendents, Louis-Pasteur Vallery-Radot, and Maurice Vallery-Radot disputed the authenticity of such statements. According to Maurice Vallery-Radot, Pasteur (1994), p. 378, the attributed assertion first appeared in the Semaine religieuse .... du diocèse de Versailles (6 October 1895), p. 153, shortly after the death of Pasteur.
Disputed
Variant: I have the faith of a Breton peasant and by the time I die I hope to have the faith of a Breton peasant's wife.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "The more I know, the more nearly is my faith that of the Breton peasant. Could I but know all I would have the faith of…" by Louis Pasteur?
Louis Pasteur 46
French chemist and microbiologist 1822–1895Related quotes
Vincent Van Gogh
(1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Quote in his letter to brother Theo from Nuenen, The Netherlands, Summer 1885; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, (letter 400) p. 21
1880s, 1885
Robert G. Ingersoll
(1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
Soliloquy at the tomb of Napoleon (1882); noted to have been misreported as "I would rather be the humblest peasant that ever lived … at peace with the world than be the greatest Christian that ever lived" by Billy Sunday (May 26, 1912), as reported in Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 52-53.
Ferdinand Magellan
(1480–1521) Portuguese explorer
This quotation is often found on the internet attributed to Magellan, but never with a source, and no English occurrence prior to its use by Robert Green Ingersoll in his essay "Individuality" http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/individuality.html (1873) has been located. Thus, it it most likely spurious. In that essay Ingersoll states:
It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions, — some one who had the grandeur to say his say. I believe it was Magellan who said, "The church says the earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the church." On the prow of his ship were disobedience, defiance, scorn, and success.
Disputed
Variant: The Church says that the Earth is Flat, but I know that it is Round. For I have seen its Shadow on the Moon and I have more Faith in a Shadow than in the Church.
Source: As quoted in Oxford Academic (25 July 2013) http://oupacademic.tumblr.com/post/56463634957/misquotation-i-have-seen-the-shadow-of-the-earth
Jane Ellen Harrison
(1850–1928) British classical scholar, linguist and feminist
p. 8 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011434878;view=1up;seq=20
Alpha and omega (1915)
“Why should I feed my prisoners when I don't have enough to feed my peasants?”
Mobutu Sésé Seko
(1930–1997) President of Zaïre
Ayittey, p. 109
Włodzimierz Ptak
(1928–2019) immunologist
in answer to the question of how he managed to stay active scientifically for so long
Kobos, Andrzej (2009). Po drogach uczonych (in Polish). 4. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, pp. 383–398. ISBN 978-83-7676-021-6.
Włodzimierz Ptak
(1928–2019) immunologist
in answer to the question of how he managed to stay active scientifically for so long
Kobos, Andrzej (2009). Po drogach uczonych (in Polish). 4. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, pp. 383–398. ISBN 978-83-7676-021-6.
“I put my faith in me, and do you know why? Because I have never lost!”
Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 18
Context: "We don't seem to be overflowing with luck." "You make your own. I put no faith in gods, Lake. Never have. If they exist, they care very little— if at all— about ordinary mortals. I put my faith in me, and do you know why? Because I have never lost!"
Robertson Davies
(1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
The Great Queen is Amused.
High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories (1982)