Time & Perspective Quote by Jean Rostand

Rostand’s line lands like a lab note written in acid: public opinion is a reaction that doesn’t require much reagent. “Very little truth” isn’t a plea for honesty so much as a warning about dosage. A trace amount of fact, strategically placed, can catalyze a whole social conclusion. The sentence doesn’t celebrate truth; it demotes truth to an ingredient that can be weaponized, diluted, or used as a garnish on a far larger dish of insinuation.

The second clause sharpens the cynicism. “One might be hated at extremely low cost” frames hatred as an efficient market: the supply chain is cheap, the demand is constant, and the consumer doesn’t insist on rigorous sourcing. Rostand, a scientist, is translating social behavior into something like thermodynamics: small inputs, large outputs. That framing matters. Coming from a biologist and public intellectual in a century of propaganda, ideological purges, and mass-media acceleration, the quote reads as fieldwork from modernity’s worst experiments.

The subtext is a critique of our appetite for partial evidence. People don’t need a full account to convict; they need just enough truth to feel licensed. A single accurate detail can launder a larger falsehood, giving it the clean scent of credibility. Rostand is also pointing at the asymmetry of reputational damage: building trust is expensive; triggering suspicion is bargain-priced.

Intent-wise, it’s less misanthropy than prophylaxis. He’s urging intellectual hygiene: demand more than “a little truth,” because that’s exactly what hatred requires.