Quotes by Chamfort

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Passion is the element in which we live; without it, we hardly vegetate.”

“Passion is the genesis of genius.”

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”

“In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love”

“The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.”

“All that Ive learned, Ive forgotten. The little I still know, Ive guessed.”

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

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

“Society is divided into two classes, the shearers and the shorn.”

In the current state of society, it seems to me that man is corrupted more by reason than by passion.