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

Jean Rostand

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Jean Rostand
Age: 82 †
Born: 1894
Born: October 30
Died: 1977
Died: September 4
Biologist
Historian
Philosopher
Writer
Paris
France
Nobility
Conviction
Independent
Belief
Human
Humans
Strictly
Convictions

More quotes by Jean Rostand

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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.
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In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices.
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One must credit an hypothesis with all that has had to be discovered in order to demolish it.
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Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth.
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We find it easy to believe that praise is sincere: why should anyone lie in telling us the truth?
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On tue un homme, on est un assassin. On tue des millions d'hommes, on est un conquérant. On les tue tous, on est un dieu. 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
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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
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The least one can say of power is that a vocation for it is suspicious.
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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.
Jean Rostand
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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
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It takes a very deep-rooted opinion to survive unexpressed.
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When I was young I pitied the old. Now old, it is the young I pity.
Jean Rostand
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There are big and little truths, but all belong to the same race.
Jean Rostand
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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
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Quotations--always inexact. I don't trust people who cannot even copy out.
Jean Rostand
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Kill one man and you're a murderer, kill a million and you're a conqueror.
Jean Rostand
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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.
Jean Rostand
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Le biologiste passe, la grenouille reste. The biologist passes, the frog remains.
Jean Rostand
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Science had better not free the minds of men too much, before it has tamed their instincts.
Jean Rostand
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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