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The least one can say of power is that a vocation for it is suspicious.

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
Suspicious
Vocation
Least
Power

More quotes by Jean Rostand

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One kills a man, one is an assassin one kills millions, one is a conqueror one kills everybody, one is a god.
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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.
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I prefer the honest jargon of reality to the outright lies of books.
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Already at the origin of the species man was equal to what he was destined to become.
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To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should.
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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.
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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.
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It is sometimes well for a blatant error to draw attention to overmodest truths.
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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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When I was young I pitied the old. Now old, it is the young I pity.
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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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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.
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Truth is always served by great minds, even if they fight it.
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Greatness, in order to gain recognition, must all too often consent to ape greatness.
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In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices.
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I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell.
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We must watch over our modesty in the presence of those who cannot understand its grounds.
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Science had better not free the minds of men too much, before it has tamed their instincts.
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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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My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists.
Jean Rostand