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There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.

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
Fool
Wise
Wisdom
Even
Men
Fools
Folly
Intelligence

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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We leave unmolested those who set the fire to the house, and prosecute those who sound the alarm.
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Women of the world crave excitement.
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The great always sell their society to the vanity of the little.
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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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Pleasure can be supported by an illusion but happiness rests upon truth.
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The success of many books is due to the affinity between the mediocrity of the author's ideas and those of the public.
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.
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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.
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In living and in seeing other men, the heart must break or become as bronze.
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If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor.
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Most books today seemed to have been written overnight from books read the day before.
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It is said of a lonely man that he does not appreciate the life of society. This is like saying he hates hiking because he dislikes walking in thick forest on a dark night.
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Change, change,--we all covet change.
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We must start human society from scratch as Francis Bacon said, we must recreate human understanding.
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And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead (suicide note)
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In the fine arts, as in many other things, we know well only what we have not learned.
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How many fools does it take to make up a public?
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Man may aspire to virtue, but he cannot reasonably aspire to truth.
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