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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.

Antoine Rivarol

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Antoine Rivarol
Age: 47 †
Born: 1753
Born: June 26
Died: 1801
Died: April 11
Aphorist
French Moralist
Journalist
Pamphleteer
Poet
Translator
Writer
Banhòus de Céser
Rivarol
Nations
Barbarism
Political
Rust
Like
Polished
People
Metals
Superficial
Steel
Civilized
Near
Brilliancy

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What isn’t clear, isn’t French.
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Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent.
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It is not he who searches for praise who finds it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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True felicity consists of its own consciousness.
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There is nothing so unready as readiness of wit.
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Youth is not the era of wisdom let us therefore have due consideration.
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A fool may have his coat embroidered with gold, but it is a fool's coat still.
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Of every ten persons who talk about you, nine will say something bad, and the tenth will say something good in a bad way.
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Generally speaking, there is more wit than talent in the world. Society swarms with witty people who lack talent.
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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.
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In general, indulgence for those we know is rarer than pity for those we know not.
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It has been very truly said that the mob has many heads, but no brains.
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Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.
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The cunning tempter, by avoiding the grossness of vice, often silences objections.
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The despotism of will in ideas is styled plan, project, character, obstinacy its despotism in desires is called passion.
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To be ungrateful is to be unnatural. The head may be thus guilty, not the heart.
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