Nicolas De Chamfort Quotes
"Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all."
- Nicolas De Chamfort
(Related: Men, Eating, End, First)
"Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Nature, Poor)
"One must not hope to be more than one can be."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Hope)
"Philosophy, like medicine, has plenty of drugs, few good remedies, and hardly any specific cures."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Drugs, Medicine, Philosophy, Remedies)
"Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Money)
"Real worth requires no interpreter: its everyday deeds form its emblem."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Deeds, Worth)
"Scandal is an importunate wasp, against which we must make no movement unless we are quite sure that we can kill it; otherwise it will return to the attack more furious than ever."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Scandal, Will)
"Society is composed of two great classes those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners."
- Nicolas De Chamfort
(Related: Society, Appetite)
"There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Life, Men, Time, Will)
"The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: God, First)
"Whatever evil a man may think of women, there is no woman but thinks more."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Women, Evil, Man, May, Woman)
"When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Nature, Husband, Laws, Lovers, Man, Name, Obstacles, Parents, Passion, Right, Woman)
"Most books today seemed to have been written overnight from books read the day before."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Books, Day, Today)
"There are certain times when public opinion is the worst of all opinions."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Opinion, Opinions, Public, Public opinion)
"There are more people who wish to be loved than there are who are willing to love."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Love, People)
"Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Day, Nothing, Rest, Will)
"The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Difference, Morals, Pride, Study, Vanity)
"The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Art, Society, Eloquence, Secrets)
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Day)
"Some things are easier to legalize than to legitimate."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
"The contemplative life is often miserable. One must act more, think less, and not watch oneself live."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Life, Act)
"If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Government, France, Nothing)
"I have three kinds of friends: those who love me, those who pay no attention to me, and those who detest me."
- Nicolas De Chamfort
(Related: Love, Attention)
"Man may aspire to virtue, but he cannot reasonably aspire to truth."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Truth, Virtue, Man, May)
"Man arrives as a novice at each age of his life."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Age, Life, Man)
"Living is a sickness to which sleep provides relief every sixteen hours. It's a palliative. The remedy is death."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Death, Living, Sickness, Sleep)
"It must be admitted that there are some parts of the soul which we must entirely paralyse before we can live happily in this world."
- Nicolas De Chamfort
(Related: Soul, World)
"Do you think that revolutions are made with rose water?"
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Water)
"It is commonly supposed that the art of pleasing is a wonderful aid in the pursuit of fortune; but the art of being bored is infinitely more successful."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Art, Successful, Being, Fortune, Pursuit)
"Conviction is the conscience of the mind."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Conscience, Conviction, Mind)
"Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Life, Act, Contemplation)
"Change of fashion is the tax levied by the industry of the poor on the vanity of the rich."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: Change, Fashion, Tax, Poor, Vanity)
"Celebrity is the advantage of being known to people who we don't know, and who don't know us."
- Nicolas de Chamfort
(Related: People, Being, Celebrity)
"All passions exaggerate; and they are passions only because they do exaggerate."
- Nicolas de Chamfort