There are certain times when public opinion is the worst of all opinions. Nicolas Chamfort More Quotes by Nicolas Chamfort More Quotes From Nicolas Chamfort 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 down-and evil giving A person of intellect without energy added to it, is a failure. Nicolas Chamfort failure intelligent inspirational 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 gossip ignorance looks A man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead. Nicolas Chamfort toads morning men 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. Nicolas Chamfort friends eye real The great always sell their society to the vanity of the little. Nicolas Chamfort sells vanity littles A fool who has a flash of wit creates astonishment and scandal, like hack-horses setting out to gallop. Nicolas Chamfort scandal horse fool Someone has said that to plagiarise from the ancients is to play the pirate beyond the Equator, but that to steal from the moderns is to pick pockets at street corners. Nicolas Chamfort pirate pockets play There is as much expression in the feet as in the hands. Nicolas Chamfort expression feet hands A modicum of discord is the very spice of courtship. Nicolas Chamfort courtship spices discord Covetousness is a sort of mental gluttony, not confined to money, but craving honor, and feeding on selfishness. Nicolas Chamfort feeding selfishness honor Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes. Nicolas Chamfort freedom men knowledge Society ... is nothing more than the war of a thousand petty opposed interests, an eternal strife of all the vanities, which, turn in turn wounded and humiliated one by the other, intercross, come into collision, and on the morrow expiate the triumph of the eve in the bitterness of defeat. To live alone, to remain unjostled in this miserable struggle, where for a moment one draws the eyes of the spectators, to be crushed a moment later -- this is what is called being a nonentity, having no existence. Poor humanity! Nicolas Chamfort eye struggle war Most benefactors are like unskillful generals who take the city and leave the citadel intact. Nicolas Chamfort citadels benefactors cities It's a question of prudence. Nobody has a high opinion of fishwives but who would dare offend them while walking through the fish market. Nicolas Chamfort fishes dare opinion We take our colors, chameleon-like, from each other. Nicolas Chamfort chameleon society color To possess a good cognomen is a long way on the road of success in life. Nicolas Chamfort names long way Men's hearts and faces are always wide asunder; women's are not only in close connection, but are mirror-like in the instant power of reflection. Nicolas Chamfort women reflection heart Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind. Nicolas Chamfort misanthrope forty mankind We gild our medicines with sweets; why not clothe truth and morals in peasant garments as well? Nicolas Chamfort why-not medicine sweet
