Jean Rostand Quotes
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One must either take an interest in the human situation or else parade before the void.
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Take heed of critics even when they are not fair; resist them even when they are.
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It may offend us to hear our own thoughts expressed by others: we are not sure enough of their souls.
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I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.
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One kills a man, one is an assassin; one kills millions, one is a conqueror; one kills everybody, one is a god.
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I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell.
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In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.
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Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful; there are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind.
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To reflect is to disturb one's thoughts.
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Renown? I've already got more of it than those I respect, and will never have as much as those for whom I feel contempt.
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Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said.
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Stupidity, outrage, vanity, cruelty, iniquity, bad faith, falsehood - we fail to see the whole array when it is facing in the same direction as we.
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There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past.
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The least one can say of power is that a vocation for it is suspicious.
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It takes a very deep-rooted opinion to survive unexpressed.
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In politics, yesterday's lie is attacked only to flatter today's.
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When a scientist is ahead of his times, it is often through misunderstanding of current, rather than intuition of future truth. In science there is never any error so gross that it won't one day, from some perspective, appear prophetic.
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It is not easy to imagine how little interested a scientist usually is in the work of any other, with the possible exception of the teacher who backs him or the student who honors him.
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My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists.
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Never feel remorse for what you have thought about your wife; she has thought much worse things about you.
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Truth is always served by great minds, even if they fight it.
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It is sometimes important for science to know how to forget the things she is surest of.
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Beauty in art is often nothing but ugliness subdued.
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The ideal, without doubt, varies, but its enemies, alas, are always the same.