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Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.

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
Without
Earns
Deference
Eminence
Respectability
Merit
Esteem

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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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Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.
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It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.
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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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If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor.
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Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
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Most books today seemed to have been written overnight from books read the day before.
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We gild our medicines with sweets why not clothe truth and morals in peasant garments as well?
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There is no history worthy attention save that of free nations the history of nations under the sway of despotism is no more than a collection of anecdotes.
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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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[Prudence] replaces [strength] by saving the man who has the misfortune of not possessing it from most occasions when it's needed.
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The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity.
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Intelligent people make many mistakes because they cannot believe the world is really as foolish as it is.
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Pleasure can be supported by an illusion but happiness rests upon truth.
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The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.
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Most benefactors are like unskillful generals who take the city and leave the citadel intact.
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A lover is a man who tries to be more amiable than it is possible for him to be.
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Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking.
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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.
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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.
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