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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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Nicolas Chamfort
Age: 53 †
Born: 1741
Born: April 6
Died: 1794
Died: April 13
Journalist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Clarmont-Ferrand
Number
Works
Numbers
Public
Success
Authors
Ideas
Mediocrity
Good
Match
General

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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A modicum of discord is the very spice of courtship.
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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.
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He who disguises tyranny, protection, or even benefits under the air and name of friendship reminds me of the guilty priest who poisoned the sacramental bread.
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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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Some things are easier to legalize than to legitimate.
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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.
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Egotism is the tongue of vanity.
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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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Vivre est un maladie dont le sommeil nous soulage toutes les 16 heures. C'est un pallatif. La mort est le remede.
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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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If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor.
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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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Chance is a nickname for Providence.
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Secrecy is best taught by starting with ourselves.
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.
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There some trifles well habited, as there are some fools well clothed.
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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Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.
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
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Life is a malady in which sleep soothes us every sixteen hours it is a palliation death is the remedy.
Nicolas Chamfort