The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why. - (Rostand, Jean - Admiration)

To be adult is to be alone. - (Rostand, Jean - Adulthood)

A man is not old as long as he is seeking something. - (Rostand, Jean - Age and Aging)

It may offend us to hear our own thoughts expressed by others: we are not sure enough of their souls. - (Rostand, Jean - Agreement)

Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said. - (Rostand, Jean - Aphorisms and Epigrams)

The divine is perhaps that quality in man which permits him to endure the lack of God. - (Rostand, Jean - Atheism)

Beauty in art is often nothing but ugliness subdued. - (Rostand, Jean - Beauty)

The nobility of a human being is strictly independent of that of his convictions. - (Rostand, Jean - Belief)

Prerequisite for rereadability in books: that they be forgettable. - (Rostand, Jean - Books - Reading)

The books one has written in the past have two surprises in store: one couldn't write them again, and wouldn't want to. - (Rostand, Jean - Books - Reading)

Take heed of critics even when they are not fair; resist them even when they are. - (Rostand, Jean - Critics and Criticism)

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.. - (Rostand, Jean - Fame)

There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past. - (Rostand, Jean - Future)

God, that dumping ground of our dreams. - (Rostand, Jean - God)

God, that checkroom of our dreams. - (Rostand, Jean - God)

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

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

To hate fatigues. - (Rostand, Jean - Hatred)

The ideal, without doubt, varies, but its enemies, alas, are always the same. - (Rostand, Jean - Ideals and Idealism)

To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should. - (Rostand, Jean - Ideas)

One must either take an interest in the human situation or else parade before the void. - (Rostand, Jean - Involvement)

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. - (Rostand, Jean - Judgment and Judges)

It is sometimes well for a blatant error to draw attention to overmodest truths. - (Rostand, Jean - Mistakes)

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. - (Rostand, Jean - Mistakes)

We must watch over our modesty in the presence of those who cannot understand its grounds. - (Rostand, Jean - Modesty)

It takes a very deep-rooted opinion to survive unexpressed. - (Rostand, Jean - Opinions)

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

In politics, yesterday's lie is attacked only to flatter today's. - (Rostand, Jean - Politicians and Politics)

In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day. - (Rostand, Jean - Politicians and Politics)

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. - (Rostand, Jean - Power)

The least one can say of power is that a vocation for it is suspicious. - (Rostand, Jean - Power)

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. - (Rostand, Jean - Prejudice)

We are not na?ve enough to ask for pure men; we ask merely for men whose impurity does not conflict with the obligations of their job. - (Rostand, Jean - Purity)

I prefer the honest jargon of reality to the outright lies of books. - (Rostand, Jean - Reality)

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. - (Rostand, Jean - Science and Scientists)

It is sometimes important for science to know how to forget the things she is surest of. - (Rostand, Jean - Science and Scientists)

A body of work such as Pasteur's is inconceivable in our time: no man would be given a chance to create a whole science. Nowadays a path is scarcely opened up when the crowd begins to pour in. - (Rostand, Jean - Science and Scientists)

Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth. - (Rostand, Jean - Science and Scientists)

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. - (Rostand, Jean - Science and Scientists)

I think I am one of those who can manage not to take on a completely different appearance under their own glance. - (Rostand, Jean - Self-image)

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

To reflect is to disturb one's thoughts. - (Rostand, Jean - Thoughts and Thinking)

Truth is always served by great minds, even if they fight it. - (Rostand, Jean - Truth)

I still understand a few words in life, but I no longer think they make a sentence. - (Rostand, Jean - Understanding)