Jean Rostand
Somebody told me I should put a pebble in my mouth to cure my stuttering. Well, I tried it, and during a scene I swallowed the pebble. That was the end of that.
Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said.
Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.Collection: Funny
When I was young I pitied the old. Now old, it is the young I pity.Collection: Inspirational
Being right is less important to us than the freedom to be wrong.Collection: Self Worth
It is horrible to see everything that one detested in the past coming back wearing the colors of the future.Collection: Past
To live is often to struggle toward goals one has no desire to reach.Collection: Struggle
What makes our opponents useful is that they allow us to believe that without them we would be able to realize our goals.Collection: Believe
Marriage simplifies life and complicates the day.Collection: Marriage
There are some persons we could not cut down to size without diminishing ourselves as well.Collection: Cutting
In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices.Collection: Vices
Science had better not free the minds of men too much, before it has tamed their instincts.Collection: Freedom
We give others praise which we ourselves don't believe, as long as they respond with praise we can believe.Collection: Believe
We are not naïve enough to ask for pure men; we ask merely for men whose impurity does not conflict with the obligations of their job.Collection: Jobs
Prerequisite for rereadability in books: that they be forgettable.Collection: Book
Literature: proclaiming in front of everyone what one is careful to conceal from one's immediate circleCollection: Circles
To be able to observe with a stranger's eye helps one to see with an artist's eye. What alienates us inspires.Collection: Eye
If a given scientist had not made a given discovery, someone else would have done so a little later. Johann Mendel dies unknown after having discovered the laws of heredity: thirty-five years later, three men rediscover them. But the book that is not written will never be written. The premature death of a great scientist delays humanity; that of a great writer deprives it.Collection: Book
On the brink of being satiated, desire still appears infinite.Collection: Desire
We find it easy to believe that praise is sincere: why should anyone lie in telling us the truth?Collection: Lying
Kill one man and you're a murderer, kill a million and you're a conqueror.Collection: Inspirational
Kill one man, and you are murderer.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Believe
In art as in life the valid sacrifices are those that bring no income.Collection: Art
There are things that don't deserve to be said briefly.Collection: Said
There are big and little truths, but all belong to the same race.Collection: Truth
What scientist would not long to go on living, if only to see how the little truths he has brought to light will grow up?Collection: Life
Quotations--always inexact. I don't trust people who cannot even copy out.Collection: People
Whether man is disposed to yield to nature or to oppose her, he cannot do without a correct understanding of her languageCollection: Men
The biologist passes. The frog stays the same.Collection: Frogs
God, that checkroom of our dreams.Collection: God