57 Most Famous Romain Rolland Quotes (HEROISM)

Top 17 Most Famous Romain Rolland Quotes (BEST)

“There is no joy other than the joy of creating. There is no man who is truly alive other than one who is creating. All others are just shadows on the earth with nothing to do with being alive. The joy of living, whether it is love or action, is the joy of creating.”
Romain Rolland

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. — To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that **respects** and enhances the **freedom** of others.

The true function of art is to inspire, to elevate, to awaken the divine spark within us. — The true function of art is to **inspire**, to elevate, to awaken the divine spark within us.

The greatest joy in life is to create. The greatest sorrow is to be unable to do so. — The greatest joy in **life** is to create. The greatest sorrow is to be unable to do so.

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another. — Man is so made that he can only find **relaxation** from one kind of labor by taking up another.

To be human is to live with a certain level of discomfort. It's how we learn and grow. — To be human is to live with a certain level of discomfort. It’s how we **learn** and **grow**.

The only way to deal with fear is to face it head on. — The only way to deal with **fear** is to face it head on.

To understand everything is to hate nothing.

The friend who understands you, creates you. — The **friend** who understands you, creates you.

Any man who is really a man must learn to be alone in the midst of others, to think alone for others, and, if necessary, against others. — Any man who is really a man must **learn** to be alone in the midst of others, to think alone for others, and, if necessary, against others.

Everyone, deep down within, carries a small cemetery of those he has loved.

“Most men die at twenty or thirty; thereafter they are only reflections of themselves: for the rest of their lives they are aping themselves, repeating from day to day more and more mechanically and affectedly what they said and did and thought and loved when they were alive.”
Romain Rolland

It is the artist's business to create sunshine when the sun fails. — It is the artist’s **business** to create sunshine when the sun fails.

One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved. — One makes mistakes; that is **life**. But it is never a mistake to have loved.

No one ever reads a book. He reads himself through books. — No one ever **reads** a book. He reads himself through **books**.

Discussion is impossible with someone who claims not to seek the truth, but already to possess it. — Discussion is impossible with someone who claims not to seek the **truth**, but already to possess it.

10 Romain Rolland Quotes About Life

“The more a man lives, the more a man creates, the more a man loves and loses those whom he loves, the more does he escape from death. With every new blow that we have to bear, with every new work that we round and finish, we escape from ourselves, we escape into the work we have created, the soul we have loved, the soul that has left us.”
Romain Rolland

There are some dead who are more alive than the living.

Each man must learn his own ideal and try to accomplish it that is a surer way of progress than to take the ideas of another. — Each man must learn his own ideal and try to accomplish it: that is a surer way of progress than to take the ideas of another.

Take possession of the air, submit the elements, penetrate the last redoubts of nature, make space retreat, make death retreat. — Take possession of the air, submit the elements, penetrate the last redoubts of **nature**, make space retreat, make death retreat.

“I would rather have this life of combat than the moral calm and mournful stupor of these last years. God give me struggle, enemies, howling crowds, all the combot of which I am capable.”
Romain Rolland

It is not peace that I seek, but life. — It is not **peace** that I seek, but life.

Leave your theories. All theories, you see, even those of virtue, are bad, foolish, mischievous.

“But perhaps there are in us forces other than mind and heart, other even than the senses – mysterious forces which take hold of us in the moments when the others are asleep; and perhaps it was such forces that Melchior had found in the depths of those pale eyes which had looked at him so timidly one evening when he had accosted the girl on the bank of the river, and had sat down beside her in the reeds – without knowing why – and had given her his hand.”
Romain Rolland

When nothing hampers action, the soul has fewer reasons for action.

If a man is to shed the light of the sun upon other men, he must first of all have it within himself.

3 Romain Rolland Quotes on Animals

“To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime.”
Romain Rolland

Thousands of animals (now billions) are butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. It cries vengeance upon all the human race.

I know at last what distinguishes man from animals; financial worries.

3 Romain Rolland Quotes on Heroes

“You are a vain fellow. You want to be a hero. That is why you do such silly things. A hero! I don’t quite know what that is but, you see, I imagine that a hero is a man who does what he can. The others do not do it.”
Romain Rolland

There is only one heroism in the world to see the world as it is, and to love it. — There is only one heroism in the world: to see the world as it is, and to love it.

3 Romain Rolland Quotes on Theatres

“Theatre supposes lives that are poor and agitated, a people searching in dreams for a refuge from thought. If we were happier and freer we should not feel hungry for theatre. A people that is happy and free has need of festivities more than of theatres; it will always see in itself the finest spectacle.”
Romain Rolland

The theatre, like the fresco, is art fitted to its place. And therefore it is above all else the human art, the living art.

“There is only one necessary condition for the emergence of a new theatre, that the stage and auditorium should be open to the masses, should be able to contain a people and the actions of a people.”
Romain Rolland

2 Romain Rolland Quotes on History

One day history will pass judgment on each of the nations at war; she will weigh their measure of errors, lies, and heinous follies. Let us try to make ours light before her!

History furnishes to politics all the arguments that it needs, for the chosen cause.

20 Romain Rolland Quotes that Will Make You Think

“Religious faith in the case of the Hindus has never been allowed to run counter to scientific laws, moreover the former is never made a condition for the knowledge they teach, but there are always scrupulously careful to take into consideration the possibility that by reason both the agnostic and atheist may attain truth in their own way. Such tolerance may be surprising to religious believers in the West, but it is an integral part of Vedantic belief.”
Romain Rolland

I distrust official charity. All charity should be done by stealth. — I distrust official charity. All **charity** should be done by stealth.

“The greatest book is not the one whose message engraves itself on the brain, as a telegraphic message engraves itself on the ticker-tape, but the one whose vital impact opens up other viewpoints, and from writer to reader spreads the fire that is fed by the various essences, until it becomes a vast conflagration leaping from forest to forest.”
Romain Rolland

I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so.

“Let us seek truth everywhere; let us cull it wherever we can find its blossom or its SEED. Having Found the seed, let us scatter it to the winds of heaven. Where ever it may blow, it will germinate. There is no lack in this wide universe of souls that will form the new ground.”
Romain Rolland

Every race, every art has its hypocrisy. The world is fed with a little truth and many lies.

“You desire a popular art? Begin by having a “people” whose minds are liberated, a people not crushed by misery and ceaseless toil, not brutalized by every superstition and every fanaticism, a people of itself, and victor in the fight that is being waged today.”
Romain Rolland

The artist is the compass which, through the raging of the storm, points steadily to the north.

“As a result of all his education, from everything he hears and sees around him, the child absorbs such a lot of lies and foolish nonsense, mixed in with essential truths, that the first duty of the adolescent who wants to be a healthy man is to disgorge it all.”
Romain Rolland

Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.

“All these young millionaires were anarchists, of course: when a man possesses everything it is the supreme luxury for him to deny society: for in that way he can evade his responsibilities.”
Romain Rolland

Everything is music for the born musician. — Everything is **music** for the born musician.

“The true Vedantic spirit does not start out with a system of preconceived ideas. It possesses absolute liberty and unrivalled courage among religions with regard to the facts to be observed and the diverse hypotheses it has laid down for their coordination. Never having been hampered by a priestly order, each man has been entirely free to search wherever he pleased for the spiritual explanation of the spectacle of the universe.”
Romain Rolland

Mozart was able to do what he wished in music and he never wished to so what was beyond him. — **Mozart** was able to do what he wished in music and he never wished to so what was beyond him.

“A great nation assailed by war has not only its frontiers to protect: it must also protect its good sense. It must protect itself from the hallucinations, injustices, and follies which the plague lets loose.”
Romain Rolland

Passion is like genius a miracle. — Passion is like **genius**: a **miracle**.

“The public will only stand genius in infintesimal doses, sprinkled with mannerisms and fashionable literature. A fashionable genius! Doesn’t that make you laugh? What a waste of power!”
Romain Rolland