Jean Jaurès quotes
1859 – 1914 · Third Republic, late 19th–early 20th c. · Socialist politician, philosopher and journalist
About Jean Jaurès
Born in Castres in 1859, Jaurès became a prominent parliamentary leader of republican socialism, a journalist and philosopher. He promoted moral responsibility in politics, civic ethics and pacifism during the French Third Republic. He was assassinated in Paris in July 1914.
Works: Discours à la jeunesse (Albi, 1903)
Quotes
“Courage is to seek the truth and to speak it.”
Source: Speech to the Youth, Albi (1903) · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The line appears in Jaurès’s Discours à la jeunesse, delivered at Albi in 1903.
Jaurès casts courage as a civic act: to seek truth and speak it out even when society favors lies. Delivered in Albi in 1903, the line frames honesty as political resistance and ties moral clarity to democratic responsibility.