Quote

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.

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
World
According
Ranged
Library
Hitherto
Coming
Contents
Order
Merits
Form
Intrinsic
Take
Binding
Men
Rank
Time
Merit

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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Women of the world crave excitement.
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Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.
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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.
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The philosopher who would fain extinguish his passions resembles the chemist who would like to let his furnace go out.
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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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His passions make man live, his wisdom merely makes him last.
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It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.
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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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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.
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Pleasure may come from illusion, but happiness can come only of reality.
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In the fine arts, as in many other things, we know well only what we have not learned.
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The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.
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Chance is a nickname for Providence.
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How many fools does it take to make up a public?
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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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There are more people who wish to be loved than there are who are willing to love.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Men of reason have enduredmen of passion have lived.
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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We leave unmolested those who set the fire to the house, and prosecute those who sound the alarm.
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