Nicolas Chamfort
Nicolas Chamfort
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, also known as Chamfort, was a French writer, best known for his witty epigrams and aphorisms. He was secretary to Louis XVI's sister, and of the Jacobin club...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth6 April 1741
CountryFrance
should-have government laughing
If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France.
philosophy philosophical science
Philosophy, like medicine, has plenty of drugs, few good remedies, and hardly any specific cures.
morning men toads
A man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead.
happiness watches complicated
It is with happiness as with watches: the less complicated, the less easily deranged.
class needs rich
Anyone whose needs are small seems threatening to the rich, because he's always ready to escape their control.
love-you love-is two
Love is the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two skins....
money tests preoccupation
Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.
funny class two
Society is composed of two great classes, those that have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.
suicide heart suicidal
And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead (suicide note)
fire justice house
We leave unmolested those who set the fire to the house, and prosecute those who sound the alarm.
people fame advantage
Celebrity is the advantage of being known to people who we don't know, and who don't know us.
character men enjoy
Many men and women enjoy popular esteem, not because they are known, but because they are not known.
acceptance
One must not hope to be more than one can be.
confidence love-you loving-yourself
If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor.