Top 50 Antoine Rivarol Quotes (2025 Update)

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

— Antoine Rivarol

2. “Speech is external thought, and thought internal speech.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

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

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

— Antoine Rivarol

7. “Indolence and stupidity are first cousins.”

— Antoine Rivarol

8. “The personal pronoun “I” should be the coat of arms of some individuals.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

10. “Women read each other at a single glance.”

— Antoine Rivarol

11. “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

12. “History is only time furnished with dates and rich with events.”

— Antoine Rivarol

13. “A fool may have his coat embroidered with gold, but it is a fool’s coat still.”

— Antoine Rivarol

14. “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

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

— Antoine Rivarol

16. “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

17. “Silence never yet betrayed any one!”

— Antoine Rivarol

18. “Oblivion is the rule and fame the exception, of humanity.”

— Antoine Rivarol

19. “It is said that friendship between women is only a suspension of hostilities.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

23. “Cats don’t caress us-they caress themselves on us.”

— Antoine Rivarol

24. “Memory always obeys the commands of the heart.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

26. “What isn’t clear, isn’t French.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

28. “Tenderness is the infancy of love.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

31. “To be ungrateful is to be unnatural. The head may be thus guilty, not the heart.”

— Antoine Rivarol

32. “Mind is the partial side of men; the heart is everything.”

— Antoine Rivarol

33. “There is nothing so unready as readiness of wit.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

35. “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

36. “Obtuseness is sometimes a virtue.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

39. “Extremes produce reaction. Beware that our boasted civilization does not lapse into barbarism.”

— Antoine Rivarol

40. “Reason is an historian, but the passions are actors.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

42. “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

43. “Vices are often habits rather than passions.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

45. “Very nice couplet, although there are dull stretches.”

— Antoine Rivarol

46. “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

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

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol

49. “True felicity consists of its own consciousness.”

— Antoine Rivarol

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

— Antoine Rivarol