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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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Nicolas Chamfort
Age: 53 †
Born: 1741
Born: April 6
Died: 1794
Died: April 13
Journalist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Clarmont-Ferrand
Needs
Ruffles
Shirts
Generosity
Generous
Need

More quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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A man without nobility cannot have kindliness he can only have good nature.
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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.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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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All passions exaggerate and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.
Nicolas Chamfort
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It is among uneducated women that we may look for the most confirmed gossips. Goethe tells us there is nothing more frightful than bustling ignorance.
Nicolas Chamfort
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It is with happiness as with watches: the less complicated, the less easily deranged.
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
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To enjoy and give enjoyment, without injury to yourself or others this is true morality.
Nicolas Chamfort
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A lover is a man who tries to be more amiable than it is possible for him to be.
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
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Men whose only concern is other people's opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the applause of people of poor taste some of them would be capable of good acting in front of a good audience. A decent man plays his part to the best of his ability, regardless of the taste of the gallery.
Nicolas Chamfort
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There some trifles well habited, as there are some fools well clothed.
Nicolas Chamfort
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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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Men of reason have enduredmen of passion have lived.
Nicolas Chamfort
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There aren't many benefactors who don't say, like Satan: All these things will I give you if you bow down and worship me.
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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Some things are easier to legalize than to legitimate.
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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Every day I add to the list of things I refuse to discuss. The wiser the man, the longer the list.
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