1.
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.
Antoine Rivarol
2.
Man spends his life in reasoning on the past, in complaining of the present, in fearing future.
Antoine Rivarol
3.
It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to pursuit.
Antoine Rivarol
4.
Of every ten persons who talk about you, nine will say something bad, and the tenth will say something good in a bad way.
Antoine Rivarol
5.
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.
Antoine Rivarol
6.
To lose one's self in reverie, one must be either very happy, or very unhappy. Reverie is the child of extremes.
Antoine Rivarol
7.
Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls.
Antoine Rivarol
8.
The only thing wealth does for some people is to make them worry about losing it.
Antoine Rivarol
9.
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.
Antoine Rivarol
10.
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.
Antoine Rivarol
11.
Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent.
Antoine Rivarol
12.
Generally speaking, there is more wit than talent in the world. Society swarms with witty people who lack talent.
Antoine Rivarol
13.
Memory always obeys the commands of the heart.
Antoine Rivarol
14.
Familiarity is the root of the closest friendships, as well as the interests hatreds.
Antoine Rivarol
15.
It is easy for men to write and talk like philosophers, but to act with wisdom, there is the rub!
Antoine Rivarol
16.
A fool may have his coat embroidered with gold, but it is a fool's coat still.
Antoine Rivarol
17.
Rumor, once started, rushes on like a river, until it mingles with, and is lost in the sea.
Antoine Rivarol
18.
Youth is not the era of wisdom; let us therefore have due consideration.
Antoine Rivarol
19.
What isn’t clear, isn’t French.
Antoine Rivarol
20.
Brave men do not boast nor bluster. Deeds, not words, speak for such.
Antoine Rivarol
21.
The methods that help a man acquire a fortune are the very ones that keep him from enjoying it.
Antoine Rivarol
22.
Tenderness is the infancy of love.
Antoine Rivarol
23.
There are some women who are flirts upon principle; they consider it their duty to make themselves as pleasing as possible to every one.
Antoine Rivarol
24.
The despotism of will in ideas is styled plan, project, character, obstinacy; its despotism in desires is called passion.
Antoine Rivarol
25.
If poverty makes man groan, he yawns in opulence. When fortune exempts us from labor, nature overwhelms us with time.
Antoine Rivarol
26.
True felicity consists of its own consciousness.
Antoine Rivarol
27.
It has been very truly said that the mob has many heads, but no brains.
Antoine Rivarol
28.
The world is governed by love,--self-love.
Antoine Rivarol
29.
Silence never yet betrayed any one!
Antoine Rivarol
30.
History is only time furnished with dates and rich with events.
Antoine Rivarol
31.
Oblivion is the rule and fame the exception, of humanity.
Antoine Rivarol
32.
Women read each other at a single glance.
Antoine Rivarol
33.
Mind is the partial side of men; the heart is everything.
Antoine Rivarol
34.
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.
Antoine Rivarol
35.
The mischief of children is seldom actuated by malice; that of grown-up people always is.
Antoine Rivarol
36.
The subtle sauce of malice is often indulged in by maidens of uncertain age, over their tea.
Antoine Rivarol
37.
Vices are often habits rather than passions.
Antoine Rivarol
38.
The cunning tempter, by avoiding the grossness of vice, often silences objections.
Antoine Rivarol
39.
Indolence and stupidity are first cousins.
Antoine Rivarol
40.
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.
Antoine Rivarol
41.
There is nothing so unready as readiness of wit.
Antoine Rivarol
42.
Poverty treads close upon the heels of great and unexpected wealth.
Antoine Rivarol
43.
It is, no doubt, an immense advantage to have done nothing, but one should not abuse it.
Antoine Rivarol
44.
There are men who gain from their wealth only the fear of losing it.
Antoine Rivarol
45.
Obtuseness is sometimes a virtue.
Antoine Rivarol
46.
Speech is external thought, and thought internal speech.
Antoine Rivarol
47.
In general, indulgence for those we know is rarer than pity for those we know not.
Antoine Rivarol
48.
Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.
Antoine Rivarol
49.
There is even the dignity of vice.
Antoine Rivarol
50.
The woman who too easily and ardently yielded her devotion will find that its vitality, like a bright fire, soon consumes itself.
Antoine Rivarol