Jean Rostand Quotes

55 Sourced Quotes

The nobility of a human being is strictly independent of that of his convictions.

Jean Rostand
A few great minds are enough to endow humanity with monstrous power, but a few great hearts are not enough to make us worthy of using it.

Jean Rostand
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.

Jean Rostand
One must credit an hypothesis with all that has had to be discovered in order to demolish it.

Jean Rostand
Science has made us gods before we are even worthy of being men.

Jean Rostand
To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should.

Jean Rostand
Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said.

Jean Rostand
In politics, yesterday's lie is attacked only to flatter today's.

Jean Rostand
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.

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

Jean Rostand
Greatness, in order to gain recognition, must all too often consent to ape greatness.

Jean Rostand
A married couple are well suited when both partners usually feel the need for a quarrel at the same time.

Jean Rostand
Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.

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

Jean Rostand
Science had better not free the minds of men too much, before it has tamed their instincts.

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

Jean Rostand
There are big and little truths, but all belong to the same race.

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

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

Jean Rostand
Hatred, for the man who is not engaged in it, is a little like the odor of garlic for one who hasn't eaten any.

Jean Rostand
I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.

Jean Rostand
We spend our time envying people whom we wouldn't like to be.

Jean Rostand
It is not given to everyone to find the right outlet for his envy.

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

Jean Rostand
There are some persons we could not cut down to size without diminishing ourselves as well.

Jean Rostand
By showing us the extreme diversity of the factors involved in scientific creativity, the history of science teaches us that we should open the doors of our laboratories more widely. If we put that lesson into practice, our reflection on the past will have had a beneficial effect on the future.

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

Jean Rostand
[Biology] is the least self-centered, the least narcissistic of the sciences — the one that, by taking us out of ourselves, leads us to re-establish a link with nature and to shake ourselves free from our spiritual isolation.

Jean Rostand
Prerequisite for rereadability in books: that they be forgettable.

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

Jean Rostand