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Man may aspire to virtue, but he cannot reasonably aspire to truth.

Nicolas Chamfort

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Nicolas Chamfort
Age: 53 †
Born: 1741
Born: April 6
Died: 1794
Died: April 13
Journalist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Clarmont-Ferrand
Cannot
Truth
May
Men
Reasonably
Aspire
Virtue
Literature

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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Men whose only concern is other people's opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the applause of people of poor taste some of them would be capable of good acting in front of a good audience. A decent man plays his part to the best of his ability, regardless of the taste of the gallery.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.
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Every day I add to the list of things I refuse to discuss. The wiser the man, the longer the list.
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We justly consider women to be weaker than ourselves, and yet we are governed by them.
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We need to be just before we are generous, as we need shirts before ruffles.
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She commands who is blest with indifference.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
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An author is often obscure to the reader because they proceed from the thought to expression than like the reader from the expression to the thought.
Nicolas Chamfort
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False modesty is the most decent of all lies.
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Remorse turns us against ourselves.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Man reaches each stage of his life as a novice.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Living is a sickness to which sleep provides relief every sixteen hours. It's a palliative. The remedy is death.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.
Nicolas Chamfort
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One must not hope to be more than one can be.
Nicolas Chamfort
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If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Pleasure may come from illusion, but happiness can come only of reality.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Education must have two foundations --morality as a support for virtue, prudence as a defense for self against the vices of others. By letting the balance incline to the side of morality, you only make dupes or martyrs by letting it incline to the other, you make calculating egoists.
Nicolas Chamfort