"Wherever I see some mystique, be it virtue or family, faith or fatherland, there I must commit some indecent act."

Next Quote

To act well in this world, one must sacrifice all personal desires. The people who become missionaries of religious thought have no other Fatherland than this thought. Man is not on Earth merely to be happy, nor even simply to be honest. He is here to realize great things for humanity, to attain nobility, and to surmount the vulgarity of nearly every individual.

— Ernest Renan