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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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Nicolas Chamfort
Age: 53 †
Born: 1741
Born: April 6
Died: 1794
Died: April 13
Journalist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Clarmont-Ferrand
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Citadels
Benefactors
Generals
Intact
City
Leave
Cities
Unskillful
Take
Citadel
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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.
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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.
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Love is the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two skins.
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Hope is but a charlatan that ceases not to deceive us. For myself happiness only began when I had lost it.
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Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.
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Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking.
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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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Running a house should be left to innkeepers.
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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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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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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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Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.
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Change of fashion is the tax levied by the industry of the poor on the vanity of the rich.
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Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
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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.
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Man reaches each stage of his life as a novice.
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Many men and women enjoy popular esteem, not because they are known, but because they are not known.
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Secrecy is best taught by starting with ourselves.
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