Quotes by Nicolas Chamfort

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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