Jules Michelet

Jules Michelet (21 August 1798 – 9 February 1874) was a French historian.

Jules Michelet

Quotes

Introduction to Universal History, 1831

• With the world began a war that will only end with the world, and not before: that of man against nature, mind against matter, freedom against fate. History is nothing but the story of this endless struggle.
  • Michelet, Jules (1843). Introduction à l'histoire universelle. Hachette. p. 9. 

• The intimate fusion of races is the identity of our nation, its personality.
  • Michelet, Jules (1843). Introduction à l'histoire universelle. Hachette. p. 9. 

• The last people in the world in whom the personality would consent to be absorbed into pantheism is the French.
  • Introduction à l'histoire universelle, new ed. (Paris: Hachette, 1879), p. 136

History of France, 1833-1867

• France is the daughter of freedom. In human progress, the essential part, the main force, is called man. Man is his own Prometheus.
  • Michelet, Jules (1893-1894). Preface de la Histoire de France. Flammarion. p. viii. 

• The history of France begins with the French language. Language is the primary sign of nationality.
  • Michelet, Jules (1861). Histoire de France. Chamerot. p. 1, book 3. 

• England is an Empire, Germany a race; France is a person.
  • Michelet, Jules (1861). Histoire de France. Chamerot. p. 103, book 3.