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It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.

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
Inconceivable
Wit
Avoid
Requires
Ridiculous
Much

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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The great always sell their society to the vanity of the little.
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Remorse turns us against ourselves.
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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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In living and in seeing other men, the heart must break or become as bronze.
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When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.
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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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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men.
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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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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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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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The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society
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We must start human society from scratch as Francis Bacon said, we must recreate human understanding.
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Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.
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Though we best know and cannot deny our imperfections, it is not for us to lose our self-reliance and true manhood.
Nicolas Chamfort
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To possess a good cognomen is a long way on the road of success in life.
Nicolas Chamfort
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Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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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Man may aspire to virtue, but he cannot reasonably aspire to truth.
Nicolas Chamfort
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The threat of a neglected cold is for doctors what the threat of purgatory is for priests-a gold mine.
Nicolas Chamfort