Jean Rostand

We bestow on others praise in which we do not believe, on condition that in return they bestow upon us praise in which we do.

In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices.

Marriage simplifies life and complicates the day.

It is horrible to see everything that one detested in the past coming back wearing the colors of the future.

There are things that don't deserve to be said briefly.

Prerequisite for rereadability in books: that they be forgettable.

Kill one man and you're a murderer, kill a million and you're a conqueror.

When I was young I pitied the old. Now old, it is the young I pity.

We find it easy to believe that praise is sincere: why should anyone lie in telling us the truth?

The books one has written in the past have two surprises in store: one couldn't write them again, and wouldn't want to.

There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past.

On the brink of being satiated, desire still appears infinite.

God, that checkroom of our dreams.

Literature: proclaiming in front of everyone what one is careful to conceal from one's immediate circle

Whether man is disposed to yield to nature or to oppose her, he cannot do without a correct understanding of her language

In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.

We spend our time envying people whom we wouldn't wish to be.

To say of men that they are bad is to say they are worse than we think we are, or worse than the ideal man whose image we have built up on the basis of a certain few.

Being right is less important to us than the freedom to be wrong.

The biologist passes. The frog stays the same.

We are not naГЇve enough to ask for pure men; we ask merely for men whose impurity does not conflict with the obligations of their job.

Take heed of critics even when they are not fair; resist them even when they are.

Kill one man, and you are murderer

I think I am one of those who can manage not to take on a completely different appearance under their own glance.

I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell.

In art as in life the valid sacrifices are those that bring no income.

To be able to observe with a stranger's eye helps one to see with an artist's eye. What alienates us inspires.

To live is often to struggle toward goals one has no desire to reach.

What makes our opponents useful is that they allow us to believe that without them we would be able to realize our goals.

There are moments when very little truth would be enough to shape opinion. One might be hated at extremely low cost.