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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.

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
Men
Possessing
Misfortune
Prudence
Misfortunes
Occasions
Saving
Strength
Needed
Replaces

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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In the library of the world men have hitherto been ranged according to the form, and the binding the time is coming when they will take rank and order according to their contents and intrinsic merits.
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To enjoy and give enjoyment, without injury to yourself or others this is true morality.
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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.
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Men's hearts and faces are always wide asunder women's are not only in close connection, but are mirror-like in the instant power of reflection.
Nicolas Chamfort
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The new friends whom we make after attaining a certain age and by whom we would fain replace those whom we have lost, are to our old friends what glass eyes, false teeth and wooden legs are to real eyes, natrual teeth and legs of flesh and bone.
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.
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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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Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
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Intelligent people make many mistakes because they cannot believe the world is really as foolish as it is.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Men of reason have enduredmen of passion have lived.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Pleasure may come from illusion, but happiness can come only of reality.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Nearly all men are slaves for the same reason that the Spartans assigned for the servitude of the Persians -- lack of power to pronounce the syllable, No. To be able to utter that word and live alone, are the only means to preserve one's freedom and one's character.
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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There are more people who wish to be loved than there are who are willing to love.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Man reaches each stage of his life as a novice.
Nicolas Chamfort
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How many fools does it take to make up a public?
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Marriage follows on love as smoke on flame.
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