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
art secret eloquence
The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society
greatness melancholy stem
There is a melancholy that stems from greatness
secret taught secrecy
Secrecy is best taught by starting with ourselves.
doe fool
How many fools does it take to make up a public?
opinion dare prudence
It's a question of prudence. Nobody has a high opinion of fishwives but who would dare offend them while walking through the fish market.
long forever oneself
What we love intensely or for a long time we are likely to bring within the citadel, and to assert as part of oneself.
life heart men
In living and in seeing other men, the heart must break or become as bronze.
book giving majority
The majority of the books of our time give one the impression of having been manufactured in a day out of books read the day before.
Vivre est un maladie dont le sommeil nous soulage toutes les 16 heures. C'est un pallatif. La mort est le remede.
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.