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

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
Criticism
Ingenuous
Praise
Damning
Judging
Partisan
Partisans
Regime
Regimes
Opposition
Judge

More quotes by Jean Rostand

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Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth.
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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.
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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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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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Being right is less important to us than the freedom to be wrong.
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In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.
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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What makes our opponents useful is that they allow us to believe that without them we would be able to realize our goals.
Jean Rostand
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There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past.
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In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices.
Jean Rostand
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Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said.
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Beauty in art is often nothing but ugliness subdued.
Jean Rostand
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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.
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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.
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We find it easy to believe that praise is sincere: why should anyone lie in telling us the truth?
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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God, that checkroom of our dreams.
Jean Rostand
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Kill one man, and you are murderer.
Jean Rostand
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Already at the origin of the species man was equal to what he was destined to become.
Jean Rostand
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We must watch over our modesty in the presence of those who cannot understand its grounds.
Jean Rostand