Antoine Rivarol
Man spends his life in reasoning on the past, in complaining of the present, in fearing future.Collection: Future
Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls.Collection: Great
It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to pursuit.
Memory always obeys the commands of the heart.
Oblivion is the rule and fame the exception, of humanity.
Vices are often habits rather than passions.
Speech is external thought, and thought internal speech.
Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent.
To lose one's self in reverie, one must be either very happy, or very unhappy. Reverie is the child of extremes.
Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.
Of every ten persons who talk about you, nine will say something bad, and the tenth will say something good in a bad way.
The only thing wealth does for some people is to make them worry about losing it.
Generally speaking, there is more wit than talent in the world. Society swarms with witty people who lack talent.
It is, no doubt, an immense advantage to have done nothing, but one should not abuse it.
The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy.Collection: People
It has been very truly said that the mob has many heads, but no brains.Collection: Brain
It is easy for men to write and talk like philosophers, but to act with wisdom, there is the rub!Collection: Writing
A fool may have his coat embroidered with gold, but it is a fool's coat still.Collection: Gold
The methods that help a man acquire a fortune are the very ones that keep him from enjoying it.Collection: Men
The absolute ruler may be a Nero, but he is sometimes a Titus or Marc Aurelius; the people is often Nero, but never Marc Aurelius.Collection: People
Brave men do not boast nor bluster. Deeds, not words, speak for such.Collection: Men
The world is governed by love,--self-love.Collection: Self
The modest man has everything to gain, and the arrogant man everything to lose; for modesty has always to deal with generosity, and arrogance with envy.Collection: Men
Extremes produce reaction. Beware that our boasted civilization does not lapse into barbarism.Collection: Civilization
Opinions, theories, and systems pass by turns over the grindstone of time, which at first gives them brilliancy and sharpness, but finally wears them out.Collection: Time
Cats don't caress us-they caress themselves on us.Collection: Cat
That which happens to the soil when it ceases to be cultivated by the social man happens to man himself when he foolishly forsakes society for solitude; the brambles grow up in his desert heart.Collection: Growing Up
Silence never yet betrayed any one!Collection: Silence
Women read each other at a single glance.Collection: Glances
If poverty makes man groan, he yawns in opulence. When fortune exempts us from labor, nature overwhelms us with time.Collection: Men
The mischief of children is seldom actuated by malice; that of grown-up people always is.Collection: Children
The woman who too easily and ardently yielded her devotion will find that its vitality, like a bright fire, soon consumes itself.Collection: Fire
There is nothing so unready as readiness of wit.Collection: Wit
Reason is an historian, but the passions are actors.Collection: Passion
Axioms are delightful in theory, but impossible in practice.Collection: Practice
The subtle sauce of malice is often indulged in by maidens of uncertain age, over their tea.Collection: Gossip
Very nice couplet, although there are dull stretches.Collection: Art
There are some women who are flirts upon principle; they consider it their duty to make themselves as pleasing as possible to every one.Collection: Flirting
The despotism of will in ideas is styled plan, project, character, obstinacy; its despotism in desires is called passion.Collection: Passion
Wrong is wrong; no fallacy can hide it, no subterfuge cover it so shrewdly but that the All-Seeing One will discover and punish it.Collection: Subterfuge
To be ungrateful is to be unnatural. The head may be thus guilty, not the heart.Collection: Heart
Mutability is written upon all things.Collection: Decay
Mind is the partial side of men; the heart is everything.Collection: Heart
The cunning tempter, by avoiding the grossness of vice, often silences objections.Collection: Silence
It is a notable circumstance that mothers who are themselves open to severe comments as to their, moral character, are generally most solicitous as to the virtuous behavior of their daughters.Collection: Daughter
Indolence and stupidity are first cousins.Collection: Cousin
Tenderness is the infancy of love.Collection: Infancy
History is only time furnished with dates and rich with events.Collection: History
There is even the dignity of vice.Collection: Vices
It is not he who searches for praise who finds it.Collection: Praise