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Nicolas Chamfort

14 quotes

Not every great thinker makes it into the history books, but Nicolas Chamfort's words speak for themselves. With equal ease, Nicolas Chamfort moved between Society and Nature, finding connections others missed. Discover 16 of Nicolas Chamfort's most memorable quotes, ranging across Society, Nature, Art, Morning, and Money. A favorite of many readers: "Man arrives as a novice at each age of his life."

“Change of fashion is the tax levied by the industry of the poor on the vanity of the rich.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Change

All Quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

“If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Government

“One must not hope to be more than one can be.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Hope

“Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

History

“Nature never said to me: Do not be poor still less did she say: Be rich her cry to me was always: Be independent.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Nature

“Change of fashion is the tax levied by the industry of the poor on the vanity of the rich.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Change

“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.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Art

“Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Morning

“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.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Best

“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.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Nature

“The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Art

“Man arrives as a novice at each age of his life.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Age

“Living is a sickness to which sleep provides relief every sixteen hours. It's a palliative. The remedy is death.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Death

“Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Money

“Society is composed of two great classes those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.”

— Nicolas Chamfort

Society