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I asked M.—why he'd turned down the offer of a particular post. I didn't want a post where the office is more important than the holder of it, he replied.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Living is an illness to which sleep provides relief every sixteen hours. It's a palliative. The remedy is death.
Nicolas Chamfort
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There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Anyone who has no character is not a man, but a thing.
Nicolas Chamfort
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All passions exaggerate; and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Qualities of a too superior order render a man less adapted to society. One does not go to market with big lumps of gold; one goes with silver or small change.
Nicolas Chamfort
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A lover is a man who endeavors to be more amiable than it is possible for him to be: this is the reason why almost all lovers are ridiculous.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Whatever evil a man may think of women, there is no woman but thinks more.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Few people are prepared to use their reason without fear or favor, or bold enough to apply it relentlessly to every moral, political and social issue: to kings and ministers, to men in high places … And if we don't, we're doomed to remain mediocre.
Nicolas Chamfort
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I only study the things I like; I apply my mind only to matters that interest me. They'll be useful—or useless—to me or to others in due course, I'll be given—or not given—the opportunity of benefiting from what I've learned. In any case, I'll have enjoyed the inestimable advantage of doing things I like doing and following my own inclinations.
Nicolas Chamfort
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[Prudence] replaces [strength] by saving the man who has the misfortune of not possessing it from most occasions when it's needed.
Nicolas Chamfort
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An indiscreet man is an unsealed letter: every one can read it.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Most of those who make collections of verse or epigrams are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.
Nicolas Chamfort
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A man well-known to be a liar had just told a most improbable story. Sir, while I believe you, someone said, you must admit that it's very wrong of truth not to condescend to be more plausible.
Nicolas Chamfort
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The perfect man … is in a well-lit area watching the foolish antics of people stumbling around in the dark. He can demolish with a laugh the false standards and judgments which others apply to people and things.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Life is a disease of which sleep relieves us; it is but a palliative: death is the remedy.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Economists are surgeons … who operate beautifully on the dead and torment the living.
Nicolas Chamfort
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An honest fellow stripped of all his illusions is the ideal man. Though he may have little wit, his society is always pleasant. As nothing matters to him, he cannot be pedantic; yet is he tolerant, remembering that he too has had the illusions which still beguile his neighbor. [...] He is more entertaining than other people because he is in a constant state of epigram against his neighbor. He dwells in truth, and smiles at the stumbling of others who grope in falsehood. He watches from a lighted place the ludicrous antics of those who walk in a dim room at random. Laughing, he breaks the false weight and measure of men and things.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Someone was talking about the respect we owe the public. Yes, said M…., It's a question of prudence. Nobody has a high opinion of fishwives but who would dare offend them while walking through the fish market.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Enjoy and give enjoyment, without injury to thyself or to others: this is true morality.
Nicolas Chamfort
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There are none who are truly virtuous, but those who have combated.
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A witty woman once told me something which may well be the genuine secret of her sex: that in choosing a lover each one of her kind takes more account of how other women regard him than of how she regards him herself.
Nicolas Chamfort
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There aren't many benefactors who don't say, like Satan: All these things will I give you if you bow down and worship me.
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High society is a poor play, a bad, boring opera, made slightly better by its staging, costumes and scenery.
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Quote of the day
Now if the harvest is over, And the world cold, Give me the bonus of laughter, As I lose hold.
John Betjeman
Nicolas Chamfort
Creative Commons
Born:
April 6, 1741
Died:
April 13, 1794
(aged 53)
Bio:
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, also known as Chamfort, was a French writer, best known for his witty epigrams and aphorisms. He was secretary to Louis XVI's sister, and of the Jacobin club.
Most used words:
man
society
people
love
public
nature
reason
women
woman
true
poor
age
mediocrity
ideas
happiness
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