Quotes by Romain Rolland

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He who does not strongly hate evil, will not effectively know how to love good. And the one who sees the injustices, without at the same time trying everything to combat them, cannot be the whole artist, nor the whole man.

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Any great artist, even the most individualized, is more than an individual man. In him there are several twinned personalities, always harmonized, which realize, side by side, their essence. In this respect, however, the artist differs from other people only in the power of expression.

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It is not in the view of art to suppress the struggle, but to enrich life, to make it stronger, bigger, better. Everything that comes into enmity with life also comes with art. And if it is true that love and union are her goal, it is no less true that sometimes it could be her weapon...

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How happy are the ages and serene works! But when the age is troubled and the nation struggles, art is bound to fight side by side with it, to enkindle it, to lead it, to remove the fears and wipe out the prejudices that might obstruct its way...

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There are great artists who only express themselves. But the greatest of all are those whose hearts beat for all.

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Nothing brings small, bitter, discontented souls closer than the thought that they are equally powerless.

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We check our progress not by enriching those who already have much, but by being able to satisfy those who have very little.

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No man is above the law, or under it; we don't need anyone's permission when we ask someone to obey the law.

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Only he who does nothing is not wrong. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, be afraid to repeat mistakes.

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We are given many things and much is asked of us. We have obligations to other people and even to ourselves; and we have no right, to despise these obligations.

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It is much better to dare to do great deeds to achieve a brilliant triumph, even at the cost of trial and error, than to compare yourself with those weak souls who have never felt either joy or pain because they live in a gloomy sunset and know neither victory nor defeat.

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Obedience to the law is an obligation, not a request.

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Don't raise your voice, but prepare a big club, that way you will go far.

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There is probably no character trait more important than firmness. The young man who wants to become a great man, who wants to leave his mark in this life, must be determined not only to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win, despite thousands of defeats and failures.

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It is better for businessmen to do honest business than to give part of the profit to charity.

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A completely uneducated man can only steal a freight car, while a university graduate can steal the whole railway.

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The most important ingredient in the recipe for success is knowing how to get along with people.

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I believe that a worse quality than wickedness of heart can only be weakness of brain.

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I can govern the United States and direct the work of my daughter Alice, but I cannot do both at the same time.

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The most wonderful music of the soul is kindness.

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The truth is one for all, but each people has its lie, which it calls ideal.

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Passivity is one of the worst vices.

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It takes a hundred years to restore what a single day destroys.

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No kind of reason is able to show man the way, if he does not want to see it.

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There are no gloomy times, only gloomy people.

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Habit is second nature, and for most people it is even their only nature.

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We don't see the best and worst actors on stage.

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The body is the most insignificant thing that a woman can offer.

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It is not wealth that makes us a great people, but how we use it.

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In politics you have to do a lot of things you shouldn't do.

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To educate a man interpersonally, not morally, is to educate a danger to society.

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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

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If a man lives and works honestly, so that those who depend on him and are devoted to him live well because of him, such a man can be said to have succeeded in life.

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To have a healthy body is wonderful, to have a clean soul is even better, but much more important, both for man and for the nation, is character - the totality of those merits that make a man a good man; and on the woman, a good woman.

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Morality is only the hygiene of thought and heart.

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The love of life is inseparable from the fear of death.

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A lie perverts the one who uses it before it destroys the one against whom it is directed.

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Everything is good in its place and time.

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All happiness lies in creation, and to create is to destroy death.

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The thinker who does not tend to create is a rip-off and a traitor.

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The hero does what he can. Others don't do that much either.

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Can we find an explanation for someone falling in love with someone else?

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If forgetfulness is slow to appear, it comes to the rescue.

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If selfish well-being is the sole purpose of life, then life quickly becomes pointless.

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Walking the path of life means constantly overcoming not only external obstacles, but also old forms of our consciousness in order to be reborn and reach a higher level. This is man's path to maturity.

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In a moment of love, you know the man better than after a month of observations...

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The hypocrite is forever a slave.

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He who carries the sun and life within himself will not look elsewhere for light...

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He who does not truly hate evil does not truly love good either.

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Good thing tomorrow will come.

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Only those ideas that are lived with all the soul are true.

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Truly great are those people whose heart beats for all.

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Health is as contagious as disease.

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Misfortune doesn't come by itself, but neither does success.

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A great soul is never alone. Even if fate takes away his friends, he will eventually make others.

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In friendship, there are neither debtors nor benefactors.

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In love as in art, you must not say what has already been said, but what you feel: and he who hastens to speak when he has nothing yet to say, runs the risk of never being able to say anything.

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Faith is necessary for the weak or weakened.

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Femininity has always empowered the best of men.

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I'm not trying to be right, I'm trying to tell the truth.

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The artist's true vocation: to bring light to the depths of the human heart.

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To stand alone with our unbelief when everyone around us believes: it is like missing an organ, which may be superfluous, but the others have everything; and the man blushes and hides his shame.

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Giving our heart to love and our mouth to our lover is like giving our eyes to the light; we do not give with this, but receive.

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The soul has tentacles; they also perceive what consciousness has not yet been able to grasp.

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This is what people value the most: their vanity. It is stronger than anything else. Once they have been insulted, it is no longer just about that one insult, but about the Insult itself: someone else is always to blame, and they are always right. And although they are not evil (...), they would rather watch the other person's slow destruction near them with folded hands than admit that they might have been wrong.

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I have been told many times that I am selfish; I sometimes ask myself: "What right does man have?"... When he sees so much misery, so much suffering around him, he does not dare to make demands... And yet, my heart demands and shouts: "Yes, yes! I have a right to it, I have a right to a little happiness, a tiny bit of happiness!"...

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There aren't two kinds of love... or actually, there are still two kinds: the love of those who love with all their being and of those who only give love a part of their excess. God save me from this narrowness of heart.

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My heart is blind. It's my job to lead.

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If Christ were to return today, they would not crucify him for saying, "I am the son of God," but if he said, "I am a man like you."

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You don't learn anything without making mistakes. I have never been afraid of being wrong in my life.

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There is only one heroism in the world: seeing the world as it is and loving it.