Nicolas Chamfort
Nicolas 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...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth6 April 1741
CountryFrance
ambition stupidity serious
Love, a pleasant folly; ambition, a serious stupidity.
men victory gains
Woman's weakness, not man's merit, oftenest gains the suitor's victory.
weakness
We justly consider women to be weaker than ourselves, and yet we are governed by them.
reign violence reason
Where violence reigns, reason is weak.
book reflection given
What one knows best is ... what one has learned not from books but as a result of books, through the reflections to which they have given rise.
heart world break
Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.
book ideas cynical
The success of many books is due to the affinity between the mediocrity of the author's ideas and those of the public.
women thinking evil
Whatever evil a man may think of women, there is no woman but thinks more.
history attention anecdotes
There is no history worthy attention save that of free nations; the history of nations under the sway of despotism is no more than a collection of anecdotes.
men order library
In the library of the world men have hitherto been ranged according to the form, and the binding; the time is coming when they will take rank and order according to their contents and intrinsic merits.
women way lovers
Every woman in choosing a lover takes more account of the way in which other women regard the man than of her own.
ridiculous wit
It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.
names vanity giving
Vain is equivalent to empty; thus vanity is so miserable a thing, that one cannot give it a worse name than its own. It proclaims itself for what it is.
giving doe ill
Thought consoles us for all, and heals all. If at times it does you ill, ask it for the remedy for that ill and it will give it to you.