Category Archives: Nicolas Chamfort

Quote Origin: Celebrity Is the Chastisement of Merit and the Punishment of Talent

Nicolas Chamfort? Emily Dickinson? Franz Liszt? Garrison Keillor? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The dark side of celebrity is now widely recognized. Celebrity worship encourages self-absorption, arrogance, and callousness while celebrity hatred causes denouncements, calumnies, and physical endangerment. The following saying has been attributed to the eighteenth century French epigrammatist Nicolas Chamfort and the nineteenth …

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Quote Origin: One Would Risk Being Disgusted If One Saw Politics, Justice, or One’s Dinner in the Making

Nicolas Chamfort? Marchand? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: You have previously examined a well-known comment comparing the construction of laws and sausages: Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made. I believe that a similar remark was made earlier by the Frenchman Nicolas Chamfort comparing justice and meals, but I have …

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Quote Origin: Chance, Coincidence, Miracles, Pseudonyms, and God

Albert Einstein? Théophile Gautier? Alexis de Valon? Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Helena Blavatsky? Dr. Paul F.? Heidi Quade? Bonnie Farmer? Charlotte C. Taylor? Doris Lessing? Nicolas Chamfort? Horace Walpole? Question for Quote Investigator: The following statement is attributed to the brilliant physicist Albert Einstein: Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. I have been unable to …

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Quote Origin: Chance Is the Nickname of Providence

Nicolas Chamfort? Horace Walpole? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The relationships between chance, luck, fate, and providence are often disputed. One viewpoint holds that no event occurs at random; instead, there is an underlying purpose or design though it may be hidden or opaque. Here is an adage encapsulating that thought: Chance is the nickname …

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Quote Origin: Eat a Live Frog Every Morning, and Nothing Worse Will Happen to You the Rest of the Day

Mark Twain? Nicolas Chamfort? Émile Zola? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a best-selling self-help book called “Eat That Frog!” that presents strategies to stop procrastination. The author discusses the meaning of the curious title in his introduction: Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat …

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Quote Origin: A Day Without Laughter Is a Day Wasted

Charlie Chaplin? Steve Martin? Groucho Marx? Nicolas Chamfort? Question for Quote Investigator: The following guideline for living makes sense to me, so I try to find humor in something every day: A day without laughter is a day wasted When I read this maxim originally it was credited to Charlie Chaplin, but I once heard …

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