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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
Works
Numbers
Public
Success
Authors
Ideas
Mediocrity
Good
Match
General
Number

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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If taking vitamins doesn't keep you healthy enough, try more laughter: The most wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed.
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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The great always sell their society to the vanity of the little.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Do you think that revolutions are made with rose water?
Nicolas Chamfort
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Change, change,--we all covet change.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Man reaches each stage of his life as a novice.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Society is composed of two great classes, those that have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Chance is a nickname for Providence.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Where violence reigns, reason is weak.
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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.
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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Secrecy is best taught by starting with ourselves.
Nicolas Chamfort
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We need to be just before we are generous, as we need shirts before ruffles.
Nicolas Chamfort
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It's a question of prudence. Nobody has a high opinion of fishwives but who would dare offend them while walking through the fish market.
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 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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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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There some trifles well habited, as there are some fools well clothed.
Nicolas Chamfort