Celebrity is the advantage of being known to people who we don't know, and who don't know us.
Nicolas ChamfortSometimes apparent resemblance of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact.
Nicolas ChamfortMost anthologists of poetry or quotations are like those who eat cherries or oysters, first picking the best and ending by eating everything.
Nicolas ChamfortIt must be admitted that there are some parts of the soul which we must entirely paralyse before we can live happily in this world.
Nicolas ChamfortThere are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men.
Nicolas ChamfortWe gild our medicines with sweets; why not clothe truth and morals in peasant garments as well?
Nicolas ChamfortMost benefactors are like unskillful generals who take the city and leave the citadel intact.
Nicolas ChamfortEvery day I add to the list of things I refuse to discuss. The wiser the man, the longer the list.
Nicolas ChamfortA man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead.
Nicolas ChamfortI have three kinds of friends: those who love me, those who pay no attention to me, and those who detest me.
Nicolas ChamfortTragedy has the great moral defect of giving too much importance to life and death.
Nicolas ChamfortIt 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 ChamfortIn love, everything is true, everything is false; it is the one subject on which one cannot express an absurdity.
Nicolas ChamfortOne can be certain that every generally held idea, every received notion, will be idiocy because it has been able to appeal to the majority
Nicolas ChamfortWhat one knows best is ... what one has learned not from books but as a result of books, through the reflections to which they have given rise.
Nicolas ChamfortIf you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor.
Nicolas ChamfortAt the sight of what goes on in the world, the most misanthropic of men must end by being amused, and Heraclitus must die laughing.
Nicolas ChamfortCovetousness is a sort of mental gluttony, not confined to money, but craving honor, and feeding on selfishness.
Nicolas ChamfortLife is a malady in which sleep soothes us every sixteen hours; it is a palliation; death is the remedy.
Nicolas ChamfortConscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking.
Nicolas ChamfortWomen see faults much more readily in each other than they can discover perfections.
Nicolas ChamfortCalumny is like the wasp which worries you, and which it is not best to try to get rid of unless you are sure of slaying it; for otherwise it returns to the charge more furious than ever.
Nicolas ChamfortThe best philosophical attitude to adopt towards the world is a union of the sarcasm of gaiety with the indulgence of contempt.
Nicolas ChamfortIt is with happiness as with watches: the less complicated, the less easily deranged.
Nicolas ChamfortI only study the things I like; I apply my mind only to matters that interest me. They'll be useful-or useless-to me or to others in due course, I'll be given-or not given-the opportunity of benefiting from what I've learned. In any case, I'll have enjoyed the inestimable advantage of doing things I like doing and following my own inclinations.
Nicolas Chamfort