Believe in individual initiatives, in courage, in risk.
Europe and the world are waiting for us to defend the spirit of Enlightenment, threatened in so many places.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the need to protect and promote Enlightenment values in the face of global challenges.
Emmanuel Macron's quote highlights the urgent responsibility of Europe and the broader international community to uphold the principles of the Enlightenment, such as reason, intellectual freedom, and human rights. In an era where these ideals are under threat from various forces, Macron calls for a collective effort to defend and advance these values, suggesting that their preservation is crucial for a just and progressive society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social responsibility, one might say, 'As Emmanuel Macron stated, Europe and the world need to defend the spirit of Enlightenment.'
More from Emmanuel Macron
All quotes βEurope and the world are waiting for us to defend the spirit of the enlightenment everywhere.
A romantic or classical view of the French approach would have been to say, 'It's a French company; let no one attack it. Let's block any merger. But the reality is Alcatel-Lucent is not a French company; it's a global company. Its main markets are China and the U.S. Its ownership is foreign; most of its managers aren't French.
Popularity isn't my compass. Unless it can help one to act, to be understood... that's what counts.
Our mission... it will be difficult, it will take time, it will be demanding for all men and women... will be to act in such a way that French people of the Muslim faith are always more proud of being French than of being Muslim.
I will defend Europe; it is our civilisation which is at stake... I will work to rebuild ties between Europe and its citizens.
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Reality is, you know, the tip of an iceberg of irrationality that we've managed to drag ourselves up onto for a few panting moments before we slip back into the sea of the unreal.
Never in his life had occasion to ask himself, "Why are things the way they are?" Why should he bother, when the way they were was always perfect? Why are things the way they are? The question to which there is no answer, and up till then he was so blessed he didn't even know the question existed.
The fortune my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.
As a Christian and a feminist, the most important message I can carry and fight for is the sacredness of each human life, and reproductive rights for all women are a crucial part of that. It is a moral necessity that we not be forced to bring children into the world for whom we cannot be responsible and adoring and present. We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society.
When you say βyesβ to the βisnessβ of life, when you accept this moment as it is, you can feel a sense of spaciousness within you that is deeply peaceful.
It isn't only in the name of free speech that the views of an itchy polemicist should be tolerated - and I say itchy polemicist promoting thought, not itchy ideologue promoting violence - but because provocation is indispensable to the workings of a sound, creative culture.