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Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.

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
Stupid
Opinion
Public
Society
Reigns
Amongst
Reign
Stupidity

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Life is a malady in which sleep soothes us every sixteen hours it is a palliation death is the remedy.
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A man without nobility cannot have kindliness he can only have good nature.
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Hope is but a charlatan that ceases not to deceive us. For myself happiness only began when I had lost it.
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Real worth requires no interpreter: its everyday deeds form its emblem.
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How many fools does it take to make up a public?
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Society is composed of two great classes, those that have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.
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Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
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When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.
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Scandal is an importunate wasp, against which we must make no movement unless we are quite sure that we can kill it otherwise it will return to the attack more furious than ever.
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Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.
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If it wasn't for me, I'd do brilliantly.
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Many men and women enjoy popular esteem, not because they are known, but because they are not known.
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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.
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The threat of a neglected cold is for doctors what the threat of purgatory is for priests-a gold mine.
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It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.
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Most anthologists of poetry or quotations are like those who eat cherries or oysters, first picking the best and ending by eating everything.
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Almost the whole of history is but a sequence of horrors.
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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.
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One must not hope to be more than one can be.
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Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.
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