Nicolas Chamfort
Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.Collection: Marriage
Society is composed of two great classes those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.Collection: Society
Celebrity is the advantage of being known to people who we don't know, and who don't know us.Collection: Famous
Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.Collection: Morning
Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent.Collection: Independence
Living is a sickness to which sleep provides relief every sixteen hours. It's a palliative. The remedy is death.Collection: Death
The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.
There are certain times when public opinion is the worst of all opinions.
The contemplative life is often miserable. One must act more, think less, and not watch oneself live.
All passions exaggerate; and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.
When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.
Whatever evil a man may think of women, there is no woman but thinks more.
Do you think that revolutions are made with rose water?
It is commonly supposed that the art of pleasing is a wonderful aid in the pursuit of fortune; but the art of being bored is infinitely more successful.
There is a melancholy that stems from greatness.
The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.
The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society.
I have three kinds of friends: those who love me, those who pay no attention to me, and those who detest me.
Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.
There are more people who wish to be loved than there are who are willing to love.
Philosophy, like medicine, has plenty of drugs, few good remedies, and hardly any specific cures.
Some things are easier to legalize than to legitimate.
If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France.
There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.
There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men.
People are governed with the head; kindness of heart is little use in chess.
One must not hope to be more than one can be.
Most books today seemed to have been written overnight from books read the day before.
Man arrives as a novice at each age of his life.
Real worth requires no interpreter: its everyday deeds form its emblem.
Change of fashion is the tax levied by the industry of the poor on the vanity of the rich.
Conviction is the conscience of the mind.
Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.
The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity.
Man may aspire to virtue, but he cannot reasonably aspire to truth.
Scandal is an importunate wasp, against which we must make no movement unless we are quite sure that we can kill it; otherwise it will return to the attack more furious than ever.
It must be admitted that there are some parts of the soul which we must entirely paralyse before we can live happily in this world.
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.
Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests upon truth.Collection: Happiness
Society is divided into two classes, the shearers and the shorn.Collection: Class
Intelligent people make many mistakes because they cannot believe the world is really as foolish as it is.Collection: Mistake
Man reaches each stage of his life as a novice.Collection: Life
Every day I add to the list of things I refuse to discuss. The wiser the man, the longer the list.Collection: Men
If taking vitamins doesn't keep you healthy enough, try more laughter: The most wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed.Collection: Laughter
Where violence reigns, reason is weak.Collection: Reign
It is children only who enjoy the present; their elders either live on the memory of the past or the hope of the future.Collection: Children
Do not suppose opportunity will knock twice at your door.Collection: Opportunity
If it wasn't for me, I'd do brilliantly.Collection: Ifs
Nearly all men are slaves for the same reason that the Spartans assigned for the servitude of the Persians -- lack of power to pronounce the syllable, "No." To be able to utter that word and live alone, are the only means to preserve one's freedom and one's character.Collection: Character
Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking.Collection: Dog