Chamfort
Chamfort
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...
play pirate pockets
Someone has said that to plagiarise from the ancients is to play the pirate beyond the Equator, but that to steal from the moderns is to pick pockets at street corners.
would-be affair charming
Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
easier certain
Tis easier to make certain things legal than to make them legitimate.
war struggle eye
Society ... is nothing more than the war of a thousand petty opposed interests, an eternal strife of all the vanities, which, turn in turn wounded and humiliated one by the other, intercross, come into collision, and on the morrow expiate the triumph of the eve in the bitterness of defeat. To live alone, to remain unjostled in this miserable struggle, where for a moment one draws the eyes of the spectators, to be crushed a moment later -- this is what is called being a nonentity, having no existence. Poor humanity!
people giving feelings
Wicked people sometimes perform good actions. I suppose they wish to see if this gives as great a feeling of pleasure as the virtuous claim for it.
misanthrope mankind forty
Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind.
laughter healthy trying
If taking vitamins doesn't keep you healthy enough, try more laughter: The most wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed.
belief conviction intellect
Conviction is the conscience of intellect.
art fine wells
In the fine arts, as in many other things, we know well only what we have not learned.
attitude philosophical sarcasm
The best philosophical attitude to adopt towards the world is a union of the sarcasm of gaiety with the indulgence of contempt.
perfect demand littles
If a woman were about to proceed to her execution, she would demand a little time to perfect her toilet.
love-is epidemics disease
Love is like epidemic diseases. The more one fears it the more likely one is to contract it.
people contempt contemptuous
Contemptuous people are sure to be contemptible.
writing expression obscure
Spero Speroni explains admirably how an author who writes very clearly for himself is often obscure to his readers. "It is," he says, "because the author proceeds from the thought to the expression, and the reader from the expression to the thought.