Quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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A man must be judged on the whole of his principles or character.

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Celebrity: ...the advantage of being known by those you don't know...; the sanction of merit and the punishment of talent.

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Everything I learned, I forgot. The little I still know, I guessed.

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When we are paid for a noble deed, it is taken from us.

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Our trouble lies in the absence of a firm and clear understanding of what we are, so the most rational thing is to be modest, that is, to be ourselves.

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Clothes are the preface of a woman, sometimes even the whole book.

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For the role of a lover, only that which you are not ashamed to show to people is suitable; for the role of husband, anyone is suitable.

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We can't even imagine how much brains it takes to look ridiculous!

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A man who has had little to do with whores, understands nothing in women.

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You have to know how to do the stupid things that your nature demands.

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It is sometimes said of people who live in solitude: "They do not like society." In many cases, this is the same as saying of someone, "He does not like to walk," just because the person does not like to walk at night...

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The circumstances that caused my first pain served as armor for all others.

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Public opinion is a court of law of such a kind that it behooves the decent man neither blindly to believe the accusations, nor to reject them outright.

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The world is composed of two great groups: those who have more food than appetite and those who have more appetite than food.

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A beautiful woman said to her lover, a grumpy man, and, with all the trappings of a legitimate husband, “Remember, sir: when you are in society where my husband is present, you must be more polite than he is; this is what the rule of decency demands."

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One of man's great misfortunes is that sometimes even his merits are of no use to him, and the art of managing and using them judiciously is gained only by experience, often too late.

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A man becomes cold towards a woman who loves him too much and vice versa. Probably, with feelings of love things are the same as with good deeds: whoever is unable to repay them, becomes ungrateful.

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The silence of a man known for his eloquence is worthy of more respect than the chatter of a mediocre talker.

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My advice to you: more action, less thought, and don't be an observer of your own life.

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Whoever does not want to be a jester, should avoid the stage: standing on it, it is impossible not to act like a clown; otherwise the public will throw stones at you.

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He who aspires to become a philosopher need not fear the first sad discoveries on the path of human knowledge. To know a man thoroughly, you must overcome that hostility which he arouses in us: it is impossible to become a qualified anatomist until you learn to look without disgust at the human body and its organs.

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He who obstinately wishes to be true to reason, to conscience, or at least to scruples against the absurd and unjust conventions which rule society, who do not doubt even when it is profitable to doubt, that, in the end, remains alone without friends and support, apart from a certain incorporeal being, which is called virtue, and which does not at all prevent us from dying of hunger.

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Whoever wants to be liked by those in high circles, he must come to terms early on with the idea that there he will be taught things that have long been known, by people who have no idea about them.

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Someone has said that to borrow from antiquity is to commit piracy on the high seas, and to steal from more recent authors is to pickpocket like in the street.

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Any passion always exaggerates everything; otherwise, it wouldn't be a passion.

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Love is sweet madness, ambition is dangerous folly.

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Love is nothing but an exchange of fantasies.

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Love does not seek true perfection, but only that perfection which it invents for itself.

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Love is more pleasant than marriage, for the same reason that we find novels more interesting than historical works.

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Reckless men are many in comparison with the wise, and even a wise man has more recklessness than wisdom.

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Most people want more to inspire love than to experience it.

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People spoil their soul, conscience, mind, just as they spoil their stomach.

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A definition of despotism: such an order of things in which the greatest is low, and the lowest is humbled.

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The changes of fashion are a toll which the crafts of the poor take from the vanity of the rich.

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Scammers always try to look, at least in part, like honest people.

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Most people who collect poems or epigrams are like people who eat cherries or clams: they pick the best first and end up eating everything.

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Vanity is a property of weak and perverse natures, while thoughtful self-love is inherent in decent people.

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Conviction is the consciousness of the mind.

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The ability to please is usually considered a success, but through the ability to bore you can be even more successful: this, in fact, is the art of succeeding, as well as the art of impressing women.

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A philosopher considers himself the man who knows the price of each: is there any point in being surprised if his opinions are not to anyone's liking?

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Philosophy, like medicine, often fills us with bad cures, rarely with good cures, and almost never suggests really useful drugs.

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A poor but independent man serves only his own need; a rich but dependent man serves someone else, even several at the same time.

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Ambition kindles sordid souls much more easily than sublime ones: a haystack or a cottage burns faster than a palace.

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What is a mistress? a woman with whom you forget what you knew by heart. In other words, all the disadvantages of women.

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What is a philosopher? This is a man who opposes the laws of nature, custom, mind, conventional opinion, conscience, and prejudice, his own opinion.

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For relationships between men and women to be truly fascinating, they must be united by pleasure, memory, or desire.

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I have seen both men and women in the world, who sought not feelings in response, but actions in response; moreover, they would not give up action, if it gave rise to feeling.

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I created in my mind the image of a woman who exists in too few copies, and who protects me from other women - of which there are many.

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It is said that the most beautiful woman cannot give more than she has. It is not true at all: she gives the man absolutely everything he expects from her because in such relationships the price is set by the imagination.

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First love, then marriage: first flames, then smoke.

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Sometimes it seems to me that those who make up worldly society secretly know their true worth. I have noticed several times that they respect people who do not consider this society in any way. Often, in order to win the world's appreciation, you just have to despise it deeply, nay more: despise it sincerely,... without boasting.

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Almost all men are slaves, and this is explained in the same way that the Spartans explained the abjection of the Persians: they are unable to say no.

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Honor without respect is the reward for undeserved conceit.

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Once upon a time, love affairs were fascinatingly mysterious, and now they are fascinatingly scandalous.

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The courtiers are paupers who made their fortunes by begging for alms.

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It is said that one day Peter the Great suddenly decided to transform Russia. But even Voltaire admits that Peter's father, Aleksei, also wanted to cultivate the arts and sciences in Russia. In anything, you have to wait for favorable conditions to appear. Happy is the one who comes exactly when they are already baked.

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In our country, divorce is so common that in many homes it rests every night in the matrimonial bed between husband and wife.

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With those whom we know only half we are the same as with strangers; what we only know three-quarters of, we do not really know at all. These two observations are enough for us to rightly appreciate almost all conversations between people.

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Let's say it directly: only the one who has completely snatched certain parts of his soul lives happily.

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Weak-willed men are the light cavalry of the army of evil men: they do more harm than the army itself, for they destroy and desolate everything.

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Merits too great make a man unfit for society: you do not go to the market with gold bars; you go with silver or change.

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With happiness, things are the same as with watches: the simpler the mechanism, the less often it breaks.

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The contemplative life is often very bleak. You need more action, less thought, and not being an alienated witness to your own life.

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By how much older women, who no longer like anyone, love themselves, one can judge how much self-love they had in their youth.

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Slander is like a tiresome wasp: if you are not sure that you will kill it on the spot, do not try to drive it away; it will attack you again with even greater fury.

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As society is..., so is it governed. It is her right to say nonsense, and it is the right of ministers to do nonsense.

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To the soul and mind indecision and hesitation are the same as interrogation to the body.

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Woe to him who is clever but has no strong character. Since he took Diogenes' lamp into your hand, you also need his staff.

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Pride somehow heightens men, and vanity swells them.

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Stupidity would not be true stupidity if it did not fear the mind.

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Listening to someone's secret is like pawning their things.

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Take your pick: women you can either know or love. There is no third option.

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Whenever I see women, as well as men, who are blinded by passion for someone, I no longer believe in their ability to feel deeply. This rule has never failed me.

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Here is a man who cannot earn his respect. So there is only one thing left for him: first of all, to make a career, and then to surround himself with all kinds of scoundrels.

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It is recognized that people become attached to those they have helped. This demonstrates the goodness of nature: the ability to love is truly a well-deserved reward for a good deed.

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For truly decent people who follow certain rules, all God's commandments are summarized in the inscription above the entrance to the Telem monastery: "Do what you want."

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If I succeed in doing a good deed, and it becomes known, I do not feel rewarded, but punished.

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No matter how bad men think of women, every woman thinks even worse of them.

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However ashamed an institution (a parliament, an academy, an assembly) may be, there is no point in fighting it: it will endure because of its dimensions. Shame and levity just slide along it like bullets slide over a pig or a crocodile.

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The history of free peoples is the only subject worthy of a historian's attention; the history of peoples oppressed by despots is just a collection of anecdotes.

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Sometimes it is enough not to put up with arrogance and pride to be able to destroy them; sometimes it is enough to overlook them for them to become harmless.

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Fame is the pleasure of being known by those you do not know.

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Of all the varieties of hypocrisy, there is one a little more decent - false modesty.

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Bad people also sometimes do good deeds: as if they want to check whether it is really as pleasant as decent people claim.

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Both in marriage and in celibacy there are shortcomings, and of these two states the one in which it is still possible to correct something is preferable.

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Naturalists claim that in all species of animals degeneration begins with the females. Philosophers can quite well apply this finding to the morals of civilized society.

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It would be very well if men knew how to combine such opposite properties as love of virtue and indifference to public opinion, zeal for work and indifference to fame.

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Marriage follows love as smoke follows fire.

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Most of the works written in our time give us the impression that they were hatched one day from the pages of previously read books.

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A stingy man is the richest of all, and the poorest is the miser.

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Without women, the beginning of life would lack support, the middle of pleasure, and the end of comfort.

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Marriage is far too perfect a state for an imperfect man.

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Nowadays a portrait is painted in seven minutes, drawing is taught in three days, English is taught in forty days, eight languages ​​are taught simultaneously with the help of a few engravings depicting various objects and their names in these eight languages . In short, if it were possible to unite all the pleasures, feelings, and thoughts, which at present require a lifetime, and cram into one day we would probably do that too. They would put a pill in your mouth and say, "Swallow it and wipe it out of here!".

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In the last years of her life, Fontenelle regretted not marrying; he forgot that he had lived ninety-five years without any care.

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Here is one of the best arguments against marriage: only one woman can make a fool of a man - his wife.

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In France, no one touches the instigators, but they follow those who, seeing the fire, raise the alarm.

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Generosity is nothing but the compassion of a noble heart.

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In solitude we are happier than in society. Could this be because in solitude we think of inanimate objects, and among people - of people?

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Here is an excellent rule which should guide us in the art of the comic: we must mock and laugh in such a way that the mocked may not offend; otherwise, know that the joke failed you.

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In a country where everyone tries to appear something, many should believe, and indeed do, that it is better to be bankrupt than to be nothing.

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In serious situations, people show themselves as they should show themselves; and in trifles - as they are.

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There are two things I've always been passionate about: women and celibacy. The former passion has gone out of me; I want to keep the latter.

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Kind folly, ambition, serious stupidity - this is love.

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If we want to be liked in the company of gentlemen, we must be willing to allow ourselves to be taught many things that we know by those who do not.

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Love is like a contagious disease: the more we fear it, the more we are prone to it.

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A day that goes by without laughter is time wasted.

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The mind is often to the heart what the library of a castle is to the lord of a castle.

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With happiness, we are like a clock: the least complicated breaks the least.

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It is safe to say that any generally accepted idea or habit is foolish, since it has won the approval of the majority.

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I like love better than marriage, just as a novel is more entertaining than history.

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Material interest is a great test for small characters, but for noble characters it is only the smallest. He who despises money is by no means a decent person.

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Let us be fair before we are generous, just as the shirt comes first and the lace afterwards.

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There are aspects of the soul that we must completely paralyze if we want to live happily.

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There are more fools than the wise, and even the wise have more folly than wisdom.

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The symptoms of the disease called life are alleviated daily by sleep. But this is only symptomatic treatment. The real medicine is death.

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No amount of virtue can elevate a woman to a higher social class; only sin can do that.

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A man does not become a good general because he has many ideas, just as a general does not become a good general because he has many soldiers.

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He who destroys a prejudice, even a single one, is a benefactor of humanity.

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In the fine arts, but also in many other things, one only knows well what one has not learned.

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The people are almost all slaves, for the same reason that the Spartans explained the servitude of the Persians: because they cannot say the word no. To be able to say that word and to be able to live alone: ​​this is the only way to preserve our freedom and our character.

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The human heart loves its own emotions and weaknesses in others.

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You can rely on beautiful daydreams; but happiness rests on reality.

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Of all compromises, that of the heart is the most evil.

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We have to choose between loving women or knowing them - there is no middle ground.

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Happiness or unhappiness depends on a host of things that cannot be seen, that we do not talk about, and that cannot be told.

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Our century has simplified the concept of honor: it considers everyone who has not been in prison to be honest to the core.

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I cannot imagine wisdom without mistrust. The Scriptures say that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God; as for me, I think it's the fear of man.

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There are centuries when public opinion is the worst opinion.

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He who has no character is not a person: an object.

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When a man and a woman love each other passionately, whatever obstacles - husband, wife, parents - separate them from each other, they belong together by the will of nature, by divine right.