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Nature In Causing Reason And The Passions To Be Born At One And The Same Time Apparently Wished By The Latter Gift To Distract Man From The Evil She Had Done Him By The Former, And By Only Permitting Him To Live For A Few Years After The Loss Of His Passions Seems To Show Her Pity By Early Deliverance From A Life That Reduces Him To Reason As His Sole Resource.

-Nicolas Chamfort

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Nature In Causing Reason

Nicolas Chamfort

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Nature In Causing Reason And The Passions To Be Born At One And The Same Time Apparently Wished By The Latter Gift To Distract Man From The Evil She Had Done Him By The Former, And By Only Permitting Him To Live For A Few Years After The Loss Of His Passions Seems To Show Her Pity By Early Deliverance From A Life That Reduces Him To Reason As His Sole Resource.

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All Passions Exaggerate; And They Are Passions Only Because They Do Exaggerate.

Exaggeration Is

The Poor Are The Blacks Of Europe.

Whatever Evil A Man May Think Of Women, There Is No Woman But Thinks More.

Society Would Be A Charming Affair If We Were Only Interested In One Another.

Be My Brother Or I Will Kill You.

Hope Is But A Charlatan That Ceases Not To Deceive Us. For Myself Happiness Only Began When I Had Lost It.

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!

Though We Best Know And Cannot Deny Our Imperfections, It Is Not For Us To Lose Our Self-reliance And True Manhood.

Contemptuous People Are Sure To Be Contemptible.

A Woman Is Like Your Shadow; Follow Her, She Flies; Fly From Her, She Follows.

We Take Our Colors, Chameleon-like, From Each Other.

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.

A Fool Who Has A Flash Of Wit Creates Astonishment And Scandal, Like Hack-horses Setting Out To Gallop.

Remorse Turns Us Against Ourselves.

The Philosopher Who Would Fain Extinguish His Passions Resembles The Chemist Who Would Like To Let His Furnace Go Out.

Every Woman In Choosing A Lover Takes More Account Of The Way In Which Other Women Regard The Man Than Of Her Own.

There Some Trifles Well Habited, As There Are Some Fools Well Clothed.

Change Of Fashion Is The Tax Levied By The Industry Of The Poor On The Vanity Of The Rich.

Wrinkles And Ill-nature Together Made A Woman Hideous.

We Gild Our Medicines With Sweets; Why Not Clothe Truth And Morals In Peasant Garments As Well?

The Best Philosophical Attitude To Adopt Towards The World Is A Union Of The Sarcasm Of Gaiety With The Indulgence Of Contempt.

Knowledge Is Boundless,--human Capacity, Limited.

If You Must Love Your Neighbor As Yourself, It Is At Least As Fair To Love Yourself As Your Neighbor.

Swallow A Toad In The Morning And You Will Encounter Nothing More Disgusting The Rest Of The Day.

He Who Leaves The Game Wins It.

Whoever Is Not A Misanthrope At Forty Can Never Have Loved Mankind.

Man May Aspire To Virtue, But He Cannot Reasonably Aspire To Truth.

An Economist Is A Surgeon With An Excellent Scalpel And A Rough-edged Lancet, Who Operates Beautifully On The Dead And Tortures The Living.

A Person Of Intellect Without Energy Added To It, Is A Failure.

He Who Disguises Tyranny, Protection, Or Even Benefits Under The Air And Name Of Friendship Reminds Me Of The Guilty Priest Who Poisoned The Sacramental Bread.

A Good Number Of Works Owe Their Success To The Mediocrity Of Their Authors' Ideas, Which Match The Mediocrity Of Those Of The General Public.

There Are Two Things That One Must Get Used To Or One Will Find Life Unendurable: The Damages Of Time And Injustices Of Men.

Pleasure Can Be Supported By An Illusion; But Happiness Rests Upon Truth.

Nature Never Said To Me: Do Not Be Poor; Still Less Did She Say: Be Rich; Her Cry To Me Was Always: Be Independent.

Almost The Whole Of History Is But A Sequence Of Horrors.

Conviction Is The Conscience Of Intellect.

It Is Said Of A Lonely Man That He Does Not Appreciate The Life Of Society. This Is Like Saying He Hates Hiking Because He Dislikes Walking In Thick Forest On A Dark Night.

The Only Thing That Stops God From Sending Another Flood Is That The First One Was Useless.

Covetousness Is A Sort Of Mental Gluttony, Not Confined To Money, But Craving Honor, And Feeding On Selfishness.

One Must Not Hope To Be More Than One Can Be.

In Living And In Seeing Other Men, The Heart Must Break Or Become As Bronze.

One Can Be Certain That Every Generally Held Idea, Every Received Notion, Will Be Idiocy Because It Has Been Able To Appeal To The Majority

Egotism Is The Tongue Of Vanity.

Calumny 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.

The Success Of Many Books Is Due To The Affinity Between The Mediocrity Of The Author's Ideas And Those Of The Public.

Society Is Divided Into Two Classes, The Shearers And The Shorn.

Eminence Without Merit Earns Deference Without Esteem.

A Man Without Nobility Cannot Have Kindliness; He Can Only Have Good Nature.

Most Books Today Seemed To Have Been Written Overnight From Books Read The Day Before.

It Is Children Only Who Enjoy The Present; Their Elders Either Live On The Memory Of The Past Or The Hope Of The Future.

All Passions Are Exaggerated, Otherwise They Would Not Be Passions.

A Man Is Not Necessarily Intelligent Because He Has Plenty Of Ideas, Any More Than He Is A Good General Because He Has Plenty Of Soldiers.

Bachelors' Wives And Old Maids' Children Are Always Perfect.

Your Intelligence Often Bears The Same Relation To Your Heart As The Library Of A Chateau Does To Its Owner.

It Is With Happiness As With Watches: The Less Complicated, The Less Easily Deranged.

There Is No History Worthy Attention Save That Of Free Nations; The History Of Nations Under The Sway Of Despotism Is No More Than A Collection Of Anecdotes.

Running A House Should Be Left To Innkeepers.

Preoccupation With Money Is The Great Test Of Small Natures, But Only A Small Test Of Great Ones.

Success Makes Success, Like Money Makes Money.

A Lover Is A Man Who Tries To Be More Amiable Than It Is Possible For Him To Be.

Men Whose Only Concern Is Other People's Opinion Of Them Are Like Actors Who Put On A Poor Performance To Win The Applause Of People Of Poor Taste; Some Of Them Would Be Capable Of Good Acting In Front Of A Good Audience. A Decent Man Plays His Part To The Best Of His Ability, Regardless Of The Taste Of The Gallery.

Spero Speroni Explains Admirably How An Author Who Writes Very Clearly For Himself Is Often Obscure To His Readers. "it Is," He Says, "because The Author Proceeds From The Thought To The Expression, And The Reader From The Expression To The Thought.

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.

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.

At The Sight Of What Goes On In The World, The Most Misanthropic Of Men Must End By Being Amused, And Heraclitus Must Die Laughing.

It Is Inconceivable How Much Wit It Requires To Avoid Being Ridiculous.

An Author Is Often Obscure To The Reader Because They Proceed From The Thought To Expression Than Like The Reader From The Expression To The Thought.

It Is Passion That Makes Man Live; Wisdom Makes One Only Last.

We Leave Unmolested Those Who Set The Fire To The House, And Prosecute Those Who Sound The Alarm.

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.

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.

Vivre Est Un Maladie Dont Le Sommeil Nous Soulage Toutes Les 16 Heures. C'est Un Pallatif. La Mort Est Le Remede.

In Great Matters, Men Behave As They Are Expected To; In Little Ones, As They Would Naturally

Most Anthologists Of Poetry Or Quotations Are Like Those Who Eat Cherries Or Oysters, First Picking The Best And Ending By Eating Everything.

Slander Is The Balm Of Malignity.

Pleasure May Come From Illusion, But Happiness Can Come Only Of Reality.

There Are More Fools Than Wise Men, And Even In A Wise Man There Is More Folly Than Wisdom.

Nature In Causing Reason And The Passions To Be Born At One And The Same Time Apparently Wished By The Latter Gift To Distract Man From The Evil She Had Done Him By The Former, And By Only Permitting Him To Live For A Few Years After The Loss Of His Passions Seems To Show Her Pity By Early Deliverance From A Life That Reduces Him To Reason As His Sole Resource.

If A Woman Were About To Proceed To Her Execution, She Would Demand A Little Time To Perfect Her Toilet.

Chance Is A Nickname For Providence.

There Are More People Who Wish To Be Loved Than There Are Who Are Willing To Love.

The Art Of The Parenthesis Is One Of The Greatest Secrets Of Eloquence In Society

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.

What 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.

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.

The Most Wasted Day Of All Is That On Which We Have Not Laughed.

[prudence] Replaces [strength] By Saving The Man Who Has The Misfortune Of Not Possessing It From Most Occasions When It's Needed.

If It Were Not For The Government, We Should Have Nothing To Laugh At In France.

A Modicum Of Discord Is The Very Spice Of Courtship.

I Have Three Kinds Of Friends: Those Who Love Me, Those Who Pay No Attention To Me, And Those Who Detest Me.

The Majority Of The Books Of Our Time Give One The Impression Of Having Been Manufactured In A Day Out Of Books Read The Day Before.

To Possess A Good Cognomen Is A Long Way On The Road Of Success In Life.

Celebrity Is The Advantage Of Being Known To People Who We Don't Know, And Who Don't Know Us.

People Are Governed By The Head; A Kind Heart Is Of Little Value In Chess.

Someone Described Providence As The Baptismal Name Of Chance; No Doubt Some Pious Person Will Retort That Chance Is The Nickname Of Providence.

Women See Faults Much More Readily In Each Other Than They Can Discover Perfections.

Every Day I Add To The List Of Things I Refuse To Discuss. The Wiser The Man, The Longer The List.

Sometimes 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.

Public Opinion Reigns In Society Because Stupidity Reigns Amongst The Stupid.

Love Is The Exchange Of Two Fantasies And The Contact Of Two Skins.

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.

Conscience Is A Dog That Does Not Stop Us From Passing But That We Cannot Prevent From Barking.

Where Violence Reigns, Reason Is Weak.

Most Benefactors Are Like Unskillful Generals Who Take The City And Leave The Citadel Intact.

Vain Is Equivalent To Empty; Thus Vanity Is So Miserable A Thing, That One Cannot Give It A Worse Name Than Its Own. It Proclaims Itself For What It Is.

His Passions Make Man Live, His Wisdom Merely Makes Him Last.

Wicked People Sometimes Perform Good Actions. I Suppose They Wish To See If This Gives As Great A Feeling Of Pleasure As The Virtuous Claim For It.

There Is A Melancholy That Stems From Greatness

People Are Governed With The Head; Kindness Of Heart Is Little Use In Chess.

It Is When Their Age Of Passions Is Past That Great Men Produce Their Masterpieces, Just As It Is After Volcanic Eruptions That The Soil Is Most Fertile.

Marriage, As Practised By High Society, Is Arranged Indecency.

Life Is A Malady In Which Sleep Soothes Us Every Sixteen Hours; It Is A Palliation; Death Is The Remedy.

Women Of The World Crave Excitement.

Narrow Waists And Narrow Minds Go Together.

Too Elevated Qualities Often Unfit A Man For Society. We Do Not Go To Market With Ingots, But With Silver And Small Change.

Stupidity Would Not Be Absolute Stupidity Did It Not Fear Intelligence.

Contemplation Often Makes Life Miserable. We Should Act More, Think Less, And Stop Watching Ourselves Live.

Obscurity And Innocence, Twin Sisters, Escape Temptations Which Would Pierce Their Gossamer Armor, In Contact With The World.

In A Country Where Everyone Strives For Attention, It Is Better To Be Bankrupt Than To Be Nothing.

The Threat Of A Neglected Cold Is For Doctors What The Threat Of Purgatory Is For Priests-a Gold Mine.

Anyone Whose Needs Are Small Seems Threatening To The Rich, Because He's Always Ready To Escape Their Control.

We Justly Consider Women To Be Weaker Than Ourselves, And Yet We Are Governed By Them.

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 As Much Expression In The Feet As In The Hands.

Woman's Weakness, Not Man's Merit, Oftenest Gains The Suitor's Victory.

How Many Fools Does It Take To Make Up A Public?

Tragedy Has The Great Moral Defect Of Giving Too Much Importance To Life And Death.

Public Opinion Is The Worst Of All Opinions.

Were A Man To Consult Only His Reason, Who Would Marry? For Myself, I Wouldn't Marry, For Fear Of Having A Son Who Resembled Me.

Love Is More Pleasant Than Marriage For The Same Reason That Novels Are More Amusing Than History.

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.

Satire Is The Disease Of Art.

Love Is Like Epidemic Diseases. The More One Fears It The More Likely One Is To Contract It.

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.

Change, Change,--we All Covet Change.

The Sunset Glow Of Self-possession.

We Must Start Human Society From Scratch; As Francis Bacon Said, We Must Recreate Human Understanding.

Thought Consoles Us For All, And Heals All. If At Times It Does You Ill, Ask It For The Remedy For That Ill And It Will Give It To You.

Real Worth Requires No Interpreter: Its Everyday Deeds Form Its Emblem.

False Modesty Is The Most Decent Of All Lies.

She Commands Who Is Blest With Indifference.

Many Men And Women Enjoy Popular Esteem, Not Because They Are Known, But Because They Are Not Known.

Women Bestow On Friendship Only What They Borrow From Love.

Philosophy, Like Medicine, Has Plenty Of Drugs, Few Good Remedies, And Hardly Any Specific Cures.

The Great Always Sell Their Society To The Vanity Of The Little.

Man Reaches Each Stage Of His Life As A Novice.

Education Must Have Two Foundations --morality As A Support For Virtue, Prudence As A Defense For Self Against The Vices Of Others. By Letting The Balance Incline To The Side Of Morality, You Only Make Dupes Or Martyrs; By Letting It Incline To The Other, You Make Calculating Egoists.

Only The History Of Free Peoples Is Worth Our Attention; The History Of Men Under A Despotism Is Merely A Collection Of Anecdotes.

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.

Living Is A Sickness To Which Sleep Provides Relief Every Sixteen Hours. It's A Palliative. The Remedy Is Death.

Men Of Reason Have Endured;men Of Passion Have Lived.

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.

Do You Think That Revolutions Are Made With Rose Water?

If It Wasn't For Me, I'd Do Brilliantly.

And So I Leave This World, Where The Heart Must Either Break Or Turn To Lead (suicide Note)

In The Fine Arts, As In Many Other Things, We Know Well Only What We Have Not Learned.

In Order To Forgive Reason For The Evil It Has Wrought On The Majority Of Men, We Must Imagine For Ourselves What Man Would Be Without His Reason. 'tis A Necessary Evil.

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.

What We Love Intensely Or For A Long Time We Are Likely To Bring Within The Citadel, And To Assert As Part Of Oneself.

Some Things Are Easier To Legalize Than To Legitimate.

Do Not Suppose Opportunity Will Knock Twice At Your Door.

Life Opportunity

I 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.

Anticipation Leads The Way To Victory, And Is The Spur To Conquest.

To Enjoy And Give Enjoyment, Without Injury To Yourself Or Others; This Is True Morality.

Contact With The World Either Breaks Or Hardens The Heart.

In Love, Everything Is True, Everything Is False; It Is The One Subject On Which One Cannot Express An Absurdity.

Love, A Pleasant Folly; Ambition, A Serious Stupidity.

Society Is Composed Of Two Great Classes, Those That Have More Dinners Than Appetite, And Those Who Have More Appetite Than Dinners.

Marriage Follows On Love As Smoke On Flame.

Intelligent People Make Many Mistakes Because They Cannot Believe The World Is Really As Foolish As It Is.

We Need To Be Just Before We Are Generous, As We Need Shirts Before Ruffles.

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