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It is prose which gives sway to a language, because it is quite usual; poetry is only a luxury object.

— Antoine de Rivarol De l'universalité de la langue française (1784)

C'est la prose qui donne l'empire à une Langue, parce qu'elle est tout usuelle; la poésie n'est qu'un objet de luxe.

Original text (French)

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Poetry

More quotes by Antoine de Rivarol

The absolute ruler may be a Nero, but he is sometimes a Titus or a Marcus Aurelius; the people is often Nero, but never Marcus Aurelius.

God is the highest measure of our incapacity; the universe, space itself, are not so inaccessible.

Of Man, His Intellectual Faculties, and His Main Ideas (1797)

The being that only feels does not yet think, and the being that thinks feels always.

Of Man, His Intellectual Faculties, and His Main Ideas (1797)

The man who speaks is the man who thinks out loud.

De l'universalité de la langue française (1784)

Certainty and mystery are for feeling; clarity and uncertainty for reasoning.

Of Man, His Intellectual Faculties, and His Main Ideas (1797)

All Antoine de Rivarol quotes →

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I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.

Michael Faraday

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Antoine de Rivarol (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.