Nicolas Chamfort - Man Quotes

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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
Scripture says, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." I say, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of man."

Nicolas Chamfort
Was man made to disdain the gifts of nature? Was he placed on earth but to gather bitter fruits? For whom are the flowers the gods cause to bloom at the feet of mortals? It pleases Providence when we abandon ourselves to the different inclinations that He has given us: our duties come from His laws, and our desires from His inspirations.

Nicolas Chamfort
To help a man suffering from dropsy, it's far better to cure his thirst than to offer him a barrel of wine. Apply this principle to the wealthy.

Nicolas Chamfort
A man is not necessarily intelligent because he has plenty of ideas, any more than he is a good general because he has plenty of soldiers.

Nicolas Chamfort
If you would find to what extent each condition of society can corrupt a man, examine what he is when he has undergone that influence for the longest possible time, that is to say, when he is old. See what an old courtier is like, an old priest, an old judge, an old solicitor, an old surgeon.

Nicolas Chamfort
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
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
That a liaison between a man and a woman may be truly interesting, there must be between them enjoyment, remembrance, or desire.

Nicolas Chamfort
An indiscreet man is an unsealed letter: every one can read it.

Nicolas Chamfort
In order to forgive reason for the evil it has wrought on the majority of men, we must imagine for ourselves what man would be without his reason. 'Tis a necessary evil.

Nicolas Chamfort
Whatever evil a man may think of women, there is no woman but thinks more.

Nicolas Chamfort
Every woman in choosing a lover takes more account of the way in which other women regard the man than of her own.

Nicolas Chamfort
My whole life is woven of threads which are in blatant contrast to my principles. … I love self-chosen poverty, and live among rich people; I avoid all honors, and yet some have come to me. … I believe that illusions are necessary to man, yet live without illusion; I believe that the passions are more profitable than reason, and yet no longer know what passion is.

Nicolas Chamfort
Anyone who has no character is not a man, but a thing.

Nicolas Chamfort
There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.

Nicolas Chamfort
There are very few things in the world upon which an honest man can repose his soul, or his thoughts.

Nicolas Chamfort
At every stage of life he reaches, man finds himself but a novice.

Nicolas Chamfort
In observing the world's movements, the most melancholy man would become merry, and Heraclitus would die of laughter.

Nicolas Chamfort
Men whose only concern is other people's opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the applause of people of poor taste; some of them would be capable of good acting in front of a good audience. A decent man plays his part to the best of his ability, regardless of the taste of the gallery.

Nicolas Chamfort
Qualities too elevated often unfit a man for society. We don't take ingots with us to market; we take silver or small change.

Nicolas Chamfort
Every day I add to the list of things I refuse to discuss. The wiser the man, the longer the list.

Nicolas Chamfort
I've destroyed my passions, rather like a violent man who, finding he can't control his horse, kills it.

Nicolas Chamfort
Most social institutions seem to be designed to keep man in a state of intellectual and emotional mediocrity that makes him more fit to govern or be governed.

Nicolas Chamfort
Anyone who relies too heavily on reason to achieve happiness, who analyses it, who, so to speak, quibbles over his enjoyment and can accept only refined pleasures, ends up not having any at all. He's like a man who wants to get rid of all the lumps in his mattress and eventually ends up sleeping on bare boards.

Nicolas Chamfort