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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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Nicolas Chamfort
Age: 53 †
Born: 1741
Born: April 6
Died: 1794
Died: April 13
Journalist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Clarmont-Ferrand
Learned
Results
Books
Given
Best
Reflections
Book
Rise
Reflection
Result

More quotes by 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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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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If it wasn't for me, I'd do brilliantly.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Running a house should be left to innkeepers.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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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A lover is a man who tries to be more amiable than it is possible for him to be.
Nicolas Chamfort
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One must not hope to be more than one can be.
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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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.
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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A man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead.
Nicolas Chamfort
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A man without nobility cannot have kindliness he can only have good nature.
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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Most anthologists of poetry or quotations are like those who eat cherries or oysters, first picking the best and ending by eating everything.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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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Almost the whole of history is but a sequence of horrors.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Do not suppose opportunity will knock twice at your door.
Nicolas Chamfort
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All passions exaggerate and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.
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