Nicolas Chamfort - True Quotes

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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
Feeling creates thought, men willingly agree; but they will not so willingly agree that thought creates feeling, though this is scarcely less true.

Nicolas Chamfort
A devout and naïve Christian was admonishing those who questioned the articles of faith. A true Christian must never examine the things he's told to believe, gentlemen, he said. It's like taking a pill: if you chew it, it's so bitter you'll never get it down.

Nicolas Chamfort
In love, everything is true, everything is false; and it is the one subject on which one cannot express an absurdity.

Nicolas Chamfort
Both the court and the general public give a conventional value to men and things, and then are surprised to find themselves deceived by it. This is as if arithmeticians should give a variable an arbitrary value to the figures in a sum, and then, after restoring their true and regular value in the addition, be astonished at the incorrectness of their answer.

Nicolas Chamfort
Enjoy and give enjoyment, without injury to thyself or to others: this is true morality.

Nicolas Chamfort
Few people are able to appreciate a philosopher; he's almost a sort of public enemy. Faced by the various pretensions of mankind, …he says bluntly: "I'm prepared to take you only at your true value, what you're really worth." It's not easy to get people to appreciate anyone who makes such an uncompromising declaration.

Nicolas Chamfort