Antoine Rivarol Quotes

The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy.

Man spends his life in reasoning on the past, in complaining of the present, in fearing future.

It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to pursuit.

Of every ten persons who talk about you, nine will say something bad, and the tenth will say something good in a bad way.

The absolute ruler may be a Nero, but he is sometimes a Titus or Marc Aurelius; the people is often Nero, but never Marc Aurelius.

To lose one's self in reverie, one must be either very happy, or very unhappy. Reverie is the child of extremes.

Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls.

The only thing wealth does for some people is to make them worry about losing it.

The modest man has everything to gain, and the arrogant man everything to lose; for modesty has always to deal with generosity, and arrogance with envy.

Opinions, theories, and systems pass by turns over the grindstone of time, which at first gives them brilliancy and sharpness, but finally wears them out.

Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent.

Generally speaking, there is more wit than talent in the world. Society swarms with witty people who lack talent.

Memory always obeys the commands of the heart.

Familiarity is the root of the closest friendships, as well as the interests hatreds.

It is easy for men to write and talk like philosophers, but to act with wisdom, there is the rub!

A fool may have his coat embroidered with gold, but it is a fool's coat still.

Rumor, once started, rushes on like a river, until it mingles with, and is lost in the sea.

Youth is not the era of wisdom; let us therefore have due consideration.

What isn’t clear, isn’t French.

Brave men do not boast nor bluster. Deeds, not words, speak for such.

The methods that help a man acquire a fortune are the very ones that keep him from enjoying it.

Tenderness is the infancy of love.

There are some women who are flirts upon principle; they consider it their duty to make themselves as pleasing as possible to every one.

The despotism of will in ideas is styled plan, project, character, obstinacy; its despotism in desires is called passion.

If poverty makes man groan, he yawns in opulence. When fortune exempts us from labor, nature overwhelms us with time.

True felicity consists of its own consciousness.

It has been very truly said that the mob has many heads, but no brains.

The world is governed by love,--self-love.

Silence never yet betrayed any one!

History is only time furnished with dates and rich with events.

Oblivion is the rule and fame the exception, of humanity.

Women read each other at a single glance.

Mind is the partial side of men; the heart is everything.

That which happens to the soil when it ceases to be cultivated by the social man happens to man himself when he foolishly forsakes society for solitude; the brambles grow up in his desert heart.

The mischief of children is seldom actuated by malice; that of grown-up people always is.

The subtle sauce of malice is often indulged in by maidens of uncertain age, over their tea.

Vices are often habits rather than passions.

The cunning tempter, by avoiding the grossness of vice, often silences objections.

Indolence and stupidity are first cousins.

Wrong is wrong; no fallacy can hide it, no subterfuge cover it so shrewdly but that the All-Seeing One will discover and punish it.

There is nothing so unready as readiness of wit.

Poverty treads close upon the heels of great and unexpected wealth.

It is, no doubt, an immense advantage to have done nothing, but one should not abuse it.

There are men who gain from their wealth only the fear of losing it.

Obtuseness is sometimes a virtue.

Speech is external thought, and thought internal speech.

In general, indulgence for those we know is rarer than pity for those we know not.

Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.

There is even the dignity of vice.

The woman who too easily and ardently yielded her devotion will find that its vitality, like a bright fire, soon consumes itself.