Jean Rostand Quotes

• Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth.

  Jean Rostand

  Topics in Uncategorized

• Kill a man, one is a murderer; Kill a million, a conqueror; Kill them all, a God.

  Jean Rostand

  Topics in God

  Tags in Murder, Conqueror

• 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

• In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one’s party three times a day.

  Jean Rostand

• I think I am one of those who can manage not to take on a completely different appearance under their own glance.

  Jean Rostand

• I still understand a few words in life, but I no longer think they make a sentence.

  Jean Rostand

• God, that dumping ground of our dreams.

  Jean Rostand

• Far too often the choices reality proposes are such as to take away one’s taste for choosing.

  Jean Rostand

• A man is not old as long as he is seeking something.

  Jean Rostand

• A body of work such as Pasteur’s is inconceivable in our time: no man would be given a chance to create a whole science. Nowadays a path is scarcely opened up when the crowd begins to pour in.

  Jean Rostand

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

  Jean Rostand

• The ideal, without doubt varies, but its enemies, alas, are always the same.

  Jean Rostand

• Renown? I’ve already got more of it than those I respect, and will never have as much as those for whom I feel contempt.

  Jean Rostand

• One must either take an interest in the human situation or else parade before the void.

  Jean Rostand

• One must credit an hypothesis with all that has had to be discovered in order to demolish it.

  Jean Rostand

• One kills a man, one is an assassin; one kills millions, one is a conqueror; one kills everybody, one is a god.

  Jean Rostand

• It takes a very deep-rooted opinion to survive unexpressed.

  Jean Rostand

• It is sometimes important for science to know how to forget the things she is surest of.

  Jean Rostand

• 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.

  Jean Rostand

• To reflect is to disturb one’s thoughts.

  Jean Rostand

Jean Rostand (58)

Birth:	30th October, 1894
Death:	4th September, 1977
Nationality:	French
Profession:	Biologist, Philosopher, Writer

About

Jean Rostand was born in Paris, France. He was a French biologist, philosopher and science writer. His scientific work covered a variety of biological fields such as amphibian embryology, parthenogenesis and teratogeny, while his literary output extended into popular science, history of science and philosophy. He was active in several causes, in particular against nuclear proliferation and the death penalty. He was elected to the Académie française in 1959. He wrote several books include: La loi des riches, Pensées d'un biologiste, Charles Darwin, Carnet d'un biologiste, The substance of man, Larousse science of life, and Bestiario del amor.

Related Authors

• Barry Commoner
• Richard Owen
• David Baltimore
• Richard Lewontin
• Edward O. Wilson
• Ernst Haeckel
• Jerry A. Coyne
• Peter Watts
• Maurice Wilkins
• Allan Savory

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 26th December

Births

• 1921 - Steve Allen
• 1963 - Lars Ulrich
• 1936 - Kitty Dukakis
• 1927 - Alan King
• 1751 - Lord George Gordon

Deaths

• 1930 - Kin Hubbard
• 2011 - Samuel Carthorne Rivers
• 1945 - Bela Bartok
• 2004 - Reggie White
• 2005 - Kerry Packer