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...
wisdom heart intelligence
Your intelligence often bears the same relation to your heart as the library of a chateau does to its owner.
fashion vanity taste
Change of fashion is the tax levied by the industry of the poor on the vanity of the rich.
merit deference esteem
Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.
turns remorse
Remorse turns us against ourselves.
love men trying
A lover is a man who tries to be more amiable than it is possible for him to be.
deceiving lost charlatans
Hope is but a charlatan that ceases not to deceive us. For myself happiness only began when I had lost it.
vanity tongue egotism
Egotism is the tongue of vanity.
art disease satire
Satire is the disease of art.
temptation armor obscurity
Obscurity and Innocence, twin sisters, escape temptations which would pierce their gossamer armor, in contact with the world.
europe poor
The poor are the blacks of Europe.
calumny-is worry trying
Calumny is like the wasp which worries you, and which it is not best to try to get rid of unless you are sure of slaying it; for otherwise it returns to the charge more furious than ever.
sunset self possession
The sunset glow of self-possession.
men sight laughing
At the sight of what goes on in the world, the most misanthropic of men must end by being amused, and Heraclitus must die laughing.
absurdity subjects
In love, everything is true, everything is false; it is the one subject on which one cannot express an absurdity.