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Jules Michelet

French historian; popularized the historical concept of the Renaissance

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

Jules Michelet (circa 1865)

Quotes

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  • Each year, it is necessary to respire, to take breath again, to revive ourselves at the great living sources that forever keep their eternal freshness. Where can we find them if not at the cradle of our race, on the sacred summits from where descend the Indus and the Ganges?
  • That year will always remain a dear and cherished memory; it was the first time I had the opportunity to read the great sacred poem of India, the divine Rarnayana. If anyone has lost the freshness of emotion, let him drink a long draught of life, and youth from that deep chalice.
  • Out of India, until [17]89 there fell a torrent of light—the river of Right and Reason.
    • quoted in Arvidsson, Stefan (2006), Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, translated by Sonia Wichmann, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. 98
  • My book is born in the full light of the sun among our forefathers, the sons oflight-Aryans, Indians, Persians and Greeks . . . . This trinity of light quite naturally met with opposition from the sombre genius of the South by way of Memphis, Carthage, Tyre and Judaea. Egypt in her monuments, Judaea with her scriptures, established their Bibles, tenebrous but of lasting influence.... Now that our parent Bibles have come to light it is more apparent to what extent the Jewish Bible belongs to another race. It is a great book, without doubt, and always will be- but how gloomy and full of gross equivocation-beautiful but full of doubt like death....
    • quoted in Poliakov, L. (1974). The Aryan myth : a history of racist and nationalist ideas in Europe p 208-9
  • Follow the migrations of mankind from East to West along the sun's course and along the track of the world's magnetic currents; observe its long voyage from Asia to Europe, from India to France.... At its starting point, in India, the birthplace of races and of religions, the womb of the world .
    • quoted in Poliakov, L. (1974). The Aryan myth : a history of racist and nationalist ideas in Europe p 199
  • India seemed to have a powerful attraction for Michelet. In the "Journal" he kept, the following note is to be found: The little ruins of the Mediterranean world can no longer assuage the craving for ruins which is felt by my ravaged heart. I need the desolations, the cataclysms of the Orient, the annihilation of whole races, the deserts...• The Hall of the Nibelungen is not enough. I need the great plain of the Indian world where the Gurus perish by the hundred thousand ....
    • quoted in Poliakov, L. (1974). The Aryan myth : a history of racist and nationalist ideas in Europe p 199-200
  • The year 1863 will remain cherished and blessed. It was the first time I could read India’s great sacred poem, the divine Ramayana.... This great stream of poetry carries away the bitter leaven left behind by time and purifies us. Whoever has his heart dried up, let him drench it in the Ramayana. Whoever has lost and wept, let him find in it a soothing softness and Nature’s compassion. Whoever has done too much, willed too much, let him drink a long draught of life and youth from this deep chalice.... Everything is narrow in the Occident. Greece is small — I stifle. Judea is dry — I pant. Let me look a little towards lofty Asia, towards the deep Orient. There I find my immense poem, vast as India’s seas, blessed and made golden by the sun, a book of divine harmony in which nothing jars. There reigns a lovable peace, and even in the midst of battle, an infinite softness, an unbounded fraternity extending to all that lives, a bottomless and shoreless ocean of love, piety, clemency. I have found what I was looking for: the bible of kindness. Great poem, receive me!… Let me plunge into it! It is the sea of milk.
    • J. Michelet, quoted in India’s Impact on French Thought and Literature: Eighteenth to Twentieth Century by Michel Danino (Published in Critical Practice, X:2, June 2003, pp. 46-56)
  • Michelet held that the Vedas "were undoubtedly the first monument of the world" and that from India emanated "a torrent of light and the flow of reason and Right". He proclaimed that "the migrations of mankind follow the route of the sun from East to West along the sun's course. . . . At its starting point, man arose in India, the birthplace of races and of religions, the womb of the world".
    • Michelet, J. 1864. Bible de I'humanite. Paris: Chamerot. Febvre, Lucien. 1946. Michelet. Paris: Traits. As quoted from Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 1.

Introduction to Universal History, 1831

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  • 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

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  • 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. 
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