Jean Edmond Cyrus Rostand (30 October 1894, Paris – 4 September 1977, Ville-d'Avray) was a French biologist and philosopher.
I still understand a few words in life, but I no longer think they make a sentence.
The books one has written in the past have two surprises in store: one couldn't write them again, and wouldn't want to.
There are some persons we could not cut down to size without diminishing ourselves as well.
I think I am one of those who can manage not to take on a completely different appearance under their own glance.
I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.
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.
Being right is less important to us than the freedom to be wrong.
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.
Quotations--always inexact. I don't trust people who cannot even copy out.
To live is often to struggle toward goals one has no desire to reach.
In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices.
What makes our opponents useful is that they allow us to believe that without them we would be able to realize our goals.
Already at the origin of the species man was equal to what he was destined to become.
It is sometimes well for a blatant error to draw attention to overmodest truths.
Greatness, in order to gain recognition, must all too often consent to ape greatness.
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.
We are not naïve enough to ask for pure men; we ask merely for men whose impurity does not conflict with the obligations of their job.
It is sometimes important for science to know how to forget the things she is surest of.
In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.
Le biologiste passe, la grenouille reste. The biologist passes, the frog remains.