Charles Peguy

Philosopher

1873-01-07 – 1914-09-05

Charles Péguy was a French poet, essayist, and editor known for political and spiritual writing in the early 20th century. He founded the journal Cahiers de la Quinzaine and was an important voice in French intellectual life. Péguy was killed in the opening weeks of World War I.

Quotes by Charles Peguy

The classical artist can be recognized by his sincerity, the romantic by his laborious insincerity.
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Love is rarer than genius itself. And friendship is rarer than love.
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It is impossible to write ancient history because we lack source materials, and impossible to write modern history because we have far too many.
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One has not the right to betray even a traitor. Traitors must be fought, not betrayed.
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The life of an honest man must be a perpetual infidelity.
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It is innocence that is full and experience that is empty. It is innocence that wins and experience that loses.
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Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.
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It is better to have a war for justice than peace in injustice.
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Short of genius, a rich man cannot imagine poverty.
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What is most contrary to salvation is not sin but habit.
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Any father whose son raises his hand against him is guilty: of having produced a son who raised his hand against him.
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He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.
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A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.
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