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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
People
Metals
Superficial
Steel
Civilized
Near
Brilliancy
Nations
Barbarism
Political
Rust
Like
Polished

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What isn’t clear, isn’t French.
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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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Oblivion is the rule and fame the exception, of humanity.
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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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Reason is an historian, but the passions are actors.
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Memory always obeys the commands of the heart.
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Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent.
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It is, no doubt, an immense advantage to have done nothing, but one should not abuse it.
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Obtuseness is sometimes a virtue.
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Tenderness is the infancy of love.
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It is not he who searches for praise who finds it.
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It has been very truly said that the mob has many heads, but no brains.
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In general, indulgence for those we know is rarer than pity for those we know not.
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Cats don't caress us-they caress themselves on us.
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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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Extremes produce reaction. Beware that our boasted civilization does not lapse into barbarism.
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Youth is not the era of wisdom let us therefore have due consideration.
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