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
stupidity absolutes
Stupidity would not be absolute stupidity did it not fear intelligence.
deceiving lost charlatans
Hope is but a charlatan that ceases not to deceive us. For myself happiness only began when I had lost it.
would-be affair charming
Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
vanity littles sells
The great always sell their society to the vanity of the little.
novelty
Change, change,--we all covet change.
perfection faults rivalry
Women see faults much more readily in each other than they can discover perfections.
victory way spurs
Anticipation leads the way to victory, and is the spur to conquest.
knowledge capacity humans
Knowledge is boundless,--human capacity, limited.
love-is epidemics disease
Love is like epidemic diseases. The more one fears it the more likely one is to contract it.
self imperfection deny
Though we best know and cannot deny our imperfections, it is not for us to lose our self-reliance and true manhood.
women way lovers
Every woman in choosing a lover takes more account of the way in which other women regard the man than of her own.
slander
Slander is the balm of malignity.
flames smoke
Marriage follows on love as smoke on flame.
friends real eye
The new friends whom we make after attaining a certain age and by whom we would fain replace those whom we have lost, are to our old friends what glass eyes, false teeth and wooden legs are to real eyes, natrual teeth and legs of flesh and bone.