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
perfection faults rivalry
Women see faults much more readily in each other than they can discover perfections.
novelty
Change, change,--we all covet change.
sweet medicine why-not
We gild our medicines with sweets; why not clothe truth and morals in peasant garments as well?
names long way
To possess a good cognomen is a long way on the road of success in life.
indifference command
She commands who is blest with indifference.
ignorance gossip may
It is among uneducated women that we may look for the most confirmed gossips. Goethe tells us there is nothing more frightful than bustling ignorance.
passion men lasts
His passions make man live, his wisdom merely makes him last.
nature kindness men
A man without nobility cannot have kindliness; he can only have good nature.
honor selfishness feeding
Covetousness is a sort of mental gluttony, not confined to money, but craving honor, and feeding on selfishness.
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.