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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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Nicolas Chamfort
Age: 53 †
Born: 1741
Born: April 6
Died: 1794
Died: April 13
Journalist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Clarmont-Ferrand
Thought
Writing
Proceed
Like
Obscure
Author
Reader
Expression
Often
Art

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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We gild our medicines with sweets why not clothe truth and morals in peasant garments as well?
Nicolas Chamfort
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Remorse turns us against ourselves.
Nicolas Chamfort
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There some trifles well habited, as there are some fools well clothed.
Nicolas Chamfort
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All passions are exaggerated, otherwise they would not be passions.
Nicolas Chamfort
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A good number of works owe their success to the mediocrity of their authors' ideas, which match the mediocrity of those of the general public.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Every woman in choosing a lover takes more account of the way in which other women regard the man than of her own.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.
Nicolas Chamfort
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One must not hope to be more than one can be.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Real worth requires no interpreter: its everyday deeds form its emblem.
Nicolas Chamfort
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The best philosophical attitude to adopt towards the world is a union of the sarcasm of gaiety with the indulgence of contempt.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Where violence reigns, reason is weak.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Most benefactors are like unskillful generals who take the city and leave the citadel intact.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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We must start human society from scratch as Francis Bacon said, we must recreate human understanding.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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It is children only who enjoy the present their elders either live on the memory of the past or the hope of the future.
Nicolas Chamfort
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His passions make man live, his wisdom merely makes him last.
Nicolas Chamfort
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We justly consider women to be weaker than ourselves, and yet we are governed by them.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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