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Prerequisite for rereadability in books: that they be forgettable.

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
Prerequisite
Prerequisites
Books
Reading
Book
Forgettable

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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.
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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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There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past.
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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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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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Quotations--always inexact. I don't trust people who cannot even copy out.
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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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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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We find it easy to believe that praise is sincere: why should anyone lie in telling us the truth?
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In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices.
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In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.
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Kill one man and you're a murderer, kill a million and you're a conqueror.
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Kill one man, and you are murderer.
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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.
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It takes a very deep-rooted opinion to survive unexpressed.
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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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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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Le biologiste passe, la grenouille reste. The biologist passes, the frog remains.
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The least one can say of power is that a vocation for it is suspicious.
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It is horrible to see everything that one detested in the past coming back wearing the colors of the future.
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