Rostand Quotes & Sayings

All our souls are written in our eyes. — Edmond Rostand

Greatness, in order to gain recognition, must all too often consent to ape greatness. — Jean Rostand

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. — Jean Rostand

Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said. — Jean Rostand

It is horrible to see everything that one detested in the past coming back wearing the colors of the future. — Jean Rostand

ROXANE. One hundred men against one: you! - So, good bye! - We are the best of friends, are we not? CYRANO. Assuredly, we are! — Edmond Rostand

Think? Why think! We have computers to do that for us. — Jean Rostand

A kiss! When all is said, what is a kiss? An oath of allegiance taken in closer proximity, a promise more precise, a seal on a confession, a rose-red dot upon the letter i in loving; a secret which elects the mouth for ear; an instant of eternity murmuring like a bee; balmy communion with a flavor of flowers; a fashion of inhaling each other's hearts, and of tasting, on the brink of the lips, each other's soul! — Edmond Rostand

A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear. — Edmond Rostand

A man does not fight to win; it is better to fight in vain ... — Edmond Rostand

In politics, yesterday's lie is attacked only to flatter today's. — Jean Rostand

A large nose is in fact the sign of an affable man, good, courteous, witty, liberal, courageous, such as I am. — Edmond Rostand

Beauty in art is often nothing but ugliness subdued. — Jean Rostand

I have a different idea of elegance. I don't dress like a fop, it's true, but my moral grooming is impeccable. I never appear in public with a soiled conscience, a tarnished honor, threadbare scruples, or an insult that I haven't washed away. I'm always immaculately clean, adorned with independence and frankness. I may not cut a stylish figure, but I hold my soul erect. I wear my deeds as ribbons, my wit is sharper then the finest mustache, and when I walk among men I make truths ring like spurs. — Edmond Rostand

Well when I write my book, and tell the tale of my adventures
all these little stars that shake out of my cloak
I must save those to use for asterisks! — Edmond Rostand

A great nose may be an index
Of a great soul — Edmond Rostand

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

To be able to observe with a stranger's eye helps one to see with an artist's eye. What alienates us inspires. — Jean Rostand

In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices. — Jean Rostand

All my laurels you have riven away, and my roses; yet in spite of you, there is one crown I bear away with me ... One thing without stain, unspotted from the world, in spite of doom mine own! And that is ... my white plume. — Edmond Rostand

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. — Jean Rostand

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. — 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

Science has made us gods even before we are worthy of being men. — Jean Rostand

I carry my adornments on my soul.
I do not dress up like a popinjay;
But inwardly, I keep my daintiness.
I do not bear with me, by any chance,
An insult not yet washed away- a conscience
Yellow with unpurged bile- an honor frayed
To rags, a set of scruples badly worn.
I go caparisoned in gems unseen,
Trailing white plumes of freedom, garlanded
With my good name- no figure of a man,
But a soul clothed in shining armor, hung
With deeds for decorations, twirling- thus-
A bristling wit, and swinging at my side
Courage, and on the stones of this old town
Making the sharp truth ring, like golden spurs! — Edmond Rostand

Stay awhile! 'Tis sweet, ...
The rare occasion, when our hearts can speak
Our selves unseen, unseeing! — Edmond Rostand

It is sometimes well for a blatant error to draw attention to overmodest truths. — Jean Rostand

The divine is perhaps that quality in man which permits him to endure the lack of God. — Jean Rostand

My soul, be satisfied with flowers,
With fruit, with weeds even; but gather them
In the one garden you may call your own. — Edmond Rostand

I would die at the stake rather than change a semi-colon! — Edmond Rostand

Being right is less important to us than the freedom to be wrong. — Jean Rostand

You must believe me when I believe, and not when I doubt. — Edmond Rostand

Kill a man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god. — Jean Rostand

A man stands straighter under hostile eyes. — Edmond Rostand

Oh, don't take it so hard. I drove into this madness. Every woman needs a little madness in her life. — Edmond Rostand

God, that dumping ground of our dreams. — Jean Rostand

Literature: proclaiming in front of everyone what one is careful to conceal from one's immediate circle — Jean Rostand

Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful; there are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind. — Jean Rostand

I prefer the honest jargon of reality to the outright lies of books. — Jean Rostand

A married couple are well suited when both partners usually feel the need for a quarrel at the same time. — Jean Rostand

I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell. — Jean Rostand

Kill one man and you are a murderer. Kill millions and you are a conqueror. Kill all and you are a God. — Jean Rostand

To live is often to struggle toward goals one has no desire to reach. — Jean Rostand

I-I am going to be a storm-a flame- I need to fight whole armies alone; I have ten hearts; I have a hundred arms; I feel too strong to war with mortals- BRING ME GIANTS! — Edmond Rostand

I loved but once, yet twice I lose my love! — Edmond Rostand

Always the answer - yes! Let me die so -
Under some rosy-golden sunset, saying
A good thing, for a good cause! By the sword,
The point of honor - by the hand of one
Worthy to be my foeman, let me fall -
Steel in my heart, and laughter on my lips! — Edmond Rostand

Somebody told me I should put a pebble in my mouth to cure my stuttering. Well, I tried it, and during a scene I swallowed the pebble. That was the end of that. — Jean Rostand

No, In fairy tales When to the ill-starred Prince the lady says 'I love you!' all his ugliness fades fast But I remain the same, up to the last! — Edmond Rostand

What scientist would not long to go on living, if only to see how the little truths he has brought to light will grow up? — Jean Rostand

Hatred, for the man who is not engaged in it, is a little like the odor of garlic for one who hasn't eaten any. — Jean Rostand

There are big and little truths, but all belong to the same race. — Jean Rostand

There are some persons we could not cut down to size without diminishing ourselves as well. — Jean Rostand

Take heed of critics even when they are not fair; resist them even when they are. — Jean Rostand

A kiss is a rosy dot placed on the "i" in loving. — Edmond Rostand

My heart to yours sends but one cry:
If kisses fast could flee
By letter, then with your sweet lips
My letters read should be! — Edmond Rostand

In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day. — Jean Rostand

We find it easy to believe that praise is sincere: why should anyone lie in telling us the truth? — Jean Rostand

It takes a very deep-rooted opinion to survive unexpressed. — Jean Rostand

A few great minds are enough to endow humanity with monstrous power, but a few great hearts are not enough to make us worthy of using it. — Jean Rostand

The writer's voice, the honesty and candor that is present in that voice, is what must be written upon the page. — Edmond Rostand

I love you, but I should poorly serve the work to which I devote myself anew at the side of one to whom it were less than the greatest thing in the world! — Edmond Rostand

The nobility of a human being is strictly independent of that of his convictions. — Jean Rostand

Theories pass. The frog remains. — Jean Rostand

And what is a kiss, specifically? A pledge properly sealed, a promise seasoned to taste, a vow stamped with the immediacy of a lip, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love.' A kiss is a message too intimate for the ear, infinity captured in the bee's brief visit to a flower, secular communication with an aftertaste of heaven, the pulse rising from the heart to utter its name on a lover's lip: 'Forever. — Edmond Rostand

A kiss, when all is said, what is it? An oath that's given closer than before; A promise more precise; the sealing of Confessions that till then were barely breathed; A rosy dot placed on the i in loving. — Edmond Rostand

my white plume"
- Cyrano de Bergerac — Edmund Rostand

Quotations
always inexact. I don't trust people who cannot even copy out. — Jean Rostand

Cyrano: The leaves
Roxane: What color
Perfect Venetian red! Look at them fall.
Cyrano: Yes
they know how to die. A little way
From the branch to the earth, a little fear
Of mingling with the common dust
and yet
They go down gracefully
a fall that seems
Like flying! — Edmond Rostand

On the brink of being satiated, desire still appears infinite. — Jean Rostand

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

Stale words, what are they worth?
A moment comes and God help those for whom it never comes.
When love of such nobility possesses this shaking frame
That even the sweetest word, the ultimate honey, stings like vinegar. — Edmond Rostand

To reflect is to disturb one's thoughts. — Jean Rostand

ROXANE:
Live, for I love you!
CYRANO:
No, In fairy tales
When to the ill-starred Prince the lady says 'I love you!' all his ugliness fades fast
But I remain the same, up to the last!
ROXANE:
I have marred your life
I, I!
CYRANO:
You blessed my life!
Never on me had rested woman's love.
My mother even could not find me fair:
I had no sister; and, when grown a man,
I feared the mistress who would mock at me.
But I have had your friendship
grace to you
A woman's charm has passed across my path.
— Edmond Rostand

After all, what is a kiss? A vow made at closer range, a more precise promise, a confession that contains its own proof, a seal placed on a pact that has already been signed; it's a secret told to the mouth rather than to the ear. — Edmond Rostand

My nose is Gargantuan! You little Pig-snout, you tiny Monkey-Nostrils, you virtually invisible Pekinese-Puss, don't you realize that a nose like mine is both scepter and orb, a monument to me superiority? A great nose is the banner of a great man, a generous heart, a towering spirit, an expansive soul
such as I unmistakably am, and such as you dare not to dream of being, with your bilious weasel's eyes and no nose to keep them apart! With your face as lacking in all distinction
as lacking, I say, in interest, as lacking in pride, in imagination, in honesty, in lyricism
in a word, as lacking in nose as that other offensively bland expanse at the opposite end of your cringing spine
which I now remove from my sight by stringent application of my boot! — Edmond Rostand

When I was young I pitied the old. Now old, it is the young I pity. — Jean Rostand

But ... to sing,
to dream, to smile, to walk, to be alone, be free,
with a voice that stirs and an eye that still can see!
To cock your hat to one side, when you please
at a yes, a no, to fight, or- make poetry!
To work without a thought of fame or fortune,
on that journey, that you dream of, to the moon!
Never to write a line that's not your own ... — Edmond Rostand

We spend our time envying people whom we wouldn't wish to be. — Jean Rostand

Proclaim your pride and bitterness loudly to the world, but to me speak softly, and tell me simply that she doesn't love you. — Edmond Rostand

Watching other people making friends, everywhere, as a dog makes friends. I mark the manner of these canine courtesies and think, here comes, thank Heaven, another enemy! — Edmond Rostand

God, that checkroom of our dreams. — Jean Rostand

To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should. — Jean Rostand

There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past. — Jean Rostand

What makes our opponents useful is that they allow us to believe that without them we would be able to realize our goals. — Jean Rostand

To offend is my pleasure; I love to be hated. — Edmond Rostand

Speak to me ... be eloquent, be brilliant for me. Improvise! Rhapsodize! ... I ask for cream and you give me milk and water ... Please gather your dreams together into words. - Roxanne, Cyrano de Bergerac — Edmond Rostand

Take it, and turn to facts my fantasies. — Edmond Rostand

Kill one man and you're a murderer, kill a million and you're a conqueror. — 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

Already at the origin of the species man was equal to what he was destined to become. — Jean Rostand

The obligation to endure gives us the right to know. — Jean Rostand

Roxane: His face is like yours, burning with spirit and imagination. He is proud and noble and young and fearless and beautiful-
Cyrano:(losing all his colour.) Beautiful!
Roxane: Yes. What's wrong?
Cyrano: With me? Nothing. It's only ... only ... (Displaying his bandaged hand, with a little smile.) This fatal wound. — Edmond Rostand

A kiss, when all is told, what is it? An oath taken a little closer, a promise more exact. A wish that longs to be confirmed, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love'. A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear, a moment of infinity humming like a bee, a communion tasting of flowers, a way of breathing in a little of the heart and tasting a little of the soul with the edge of the lips! — Edmond Rostand

Kill one man, and you are murderer — Jean Rostand

Far too often the choices reality proposes are such as to take away one's taste for choosing. — Jean Rostand

My wit is more polished than your mustache. The truth which I speak strikes more sparks from men's hearts than your spurs do from the cobblestones. — Edmond Rostand

My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists. — Jean Rostand

There are things that don't deserve to be said briefly. — Jean Rostand

She is a mortal danger without meaning to be one; she's exquisite without giving ita thought; shes a trap set by nature, a rose in which love lies in ambush!
Anyone who has seen her smile has known perfection. She creates grace without movement and makes all divinity fit into her slightest gesture.
And neither Venus in her shell, nor Diana striding in the great, blossoming forest, can compare to her when she goes through the streets of paris in her sedan chair. — Edmond Rostand

Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth. — Jean Rostand