La grandeur des actions humaines se mesure à l’inspiration qui les fait naître. Heureux celui qui porte en soi un Dieu, un idéal de la beauté et qui lui obéit : idéal de l’art, idéal de la science, idéal de la patrie, idéal des vertus de l’Évangile! Ce sont là les sources vives des grandes pensées et des grandes actions. Toutes s’éclairent des reflets de l’infini.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "La grandeur des actions humaines se mesure à l’inspiration qui les fait naître. Heureux celui qui porte en soi un Dieu, un idéal de la beauté et qui lui obéit : idéal de l’art, idéal de la science, idéal de la patrie, idéal des vertus de l’Évangile! Ce sont là les sources vives des grandes pensées et des grandes actions. Toutes s’éclairent des reflets de l’infini." in the context of "The greatness of human actions is measured by the inspiration that it brings. Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal of beauty and obeys it: an ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of country, ideal virtues of the Gospel! These are the wellsprings of great thoughts and great actions. All reflections illuminate infinity.
• Variant translations:
• Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and who obeys it: ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of the gospel virtues, therein lie the springs of great thoughts and great actions; they all reflect light from the Infinite.
 • As quoted by Sir William Osler in his introduction to The Life of Pasteur (1907) by Rene Vallery-Radot, as translated by R .L. Devonshire (1923)
• Blessed is he who carries within himself a god and an ideal and who obeys it — an ideal of art, of science, or gospel virtues. Therein lie the springs of great thoughts and great actions; they all reflect light from the Infinite.
 • As quoted in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1998) by Connie Robertson, p. 320
• It is they [the Greeks] who have bequeathed to us one of the most beautiful words in our language, the word enthusiasm — an inner God. The greatness of human actions is measured by the motives which inspire them. Happy are those who carry within them a God, an ideal of beauty which they obey, the ideal of art, the ideal of science, the ideal of country, the gospel idea of virtue. Those are the living sources of great thoughts and great actions. All are lit by reflections of the infinite.
 • The above 2 quotations, without separation, as quoted in "Louis Pasteur" by Louis Gershenfeld, in The American Journal of Pharmacy, Vol. 94 (1922), edited by Ivor Griffith, p. 780" to mean that wisdom is timeless.