Nicolas Chamfort - Society Quotes

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High society is a poor play, a bad, boring opera, made slightly better by its staging, costumes and scenery.

Nicolas Chamfort
The great always sell their society to the vanity of the little.

Nicolas Chamfort
In experiencing the ills of nature, one despises death; in learning the evils of society, one despises life.

Nicolas Chamfort
Love, as it exists in society, is nothing but the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two skins.

Nicolas Chamfort
Society is composed of two great classes: those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.

Nicolas Chamfort
The best way to put the shortcomings of society, and, indeed, the whole of mankind, in their proper place is to joke about them. Joking allows you to avoid compromising yourself; it's a proof of your superiority over … the things you're poking fun at, without causing any offense to anyone except people who are surly or uncouth.

Nicolas Chamfort
We must start human society from scratch; as Francis Bacon said, we must recreate human understanding.

Nicolas Chamfort
Love as it exists in society is merely the mingling of two fantasies and the contact of two skins.

Nicolas Chamfort
Society would be a charming thing if we were only interested in one another.

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
To live without bitterness, one must turn his eyes toward the ludicrous side of the world, and accustom himself to look at men only as jumping-jacks, and at society as the board on which they jump.

Nicolas Chamfort
The physical plagues and the calamities of human nature have rendered society necessary. Society has added to the evils of nature; the imperfections of society have created the necessity for government, and government adds still further to the woes of society: this is the whole history of humanity.

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
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
Society is not, as is commonly supposed, the development of nature, but rather her dismantling and entire recasting. It is a second building made from the ruins of the first.

Nicolas Chamfort
The art of the parenthesis is one of the great secrets of eloquence in Society.

Nicolas Chamfort
Love, in the form in which it exists in society, is nothing but the exchange of two fantasies and the superficial contact of two bodies.

Nicolas Chamfort
People are always annoyed by men of letters who retreat from the world; they expect them to continue to show interest in society even though they gain little benefit from it. They would like to force them be present when lots are being drawn in a lottery for which they have no tickets.

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
Middle-class women who entertain the hope or fancy of being something in the world, lose Nature's happiness and miss Society's. They are the most unfortunate creatures I have known.

Nicolas Chamfort
There are moments when society people seem ready to be assessed at their true value. I've often noticed that they appreciate those who show little regard for them, which seems a sort of invitation to express your contempt openly, providing you do it sincerely, without affectation of ignorance, and from the heart.

Nicolas Chamfort
Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.

Nicolas Chamfort