Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Nicolas Chamfort Playwright

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: France
  • Born: Apr 6, 1741
  • Died: Apr 13, 1794

Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, also known as Chamfort, was a French writer, best known for his witty epigrams and aphorisms. He was secretary to Louis XVI's sister, and of the Jacobin club.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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