"We must start human society from scratch; as Francis Bacon said, we must recreate human understanding."

Nicolas Chamfort rhetoric See all quotes by Nicolas Chamfort →

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More by Nicolas Chamfort

“A man begins every stage of his life as a novice.”

“I asked M.—why he'd turned down the offer of a particular post. “I didn't want a post where the office is more important than the holder of it,” he replied.”

“Someone was talking about the respect we owe the public. “Yes,” said M...., “It's a question of prudence. Nobody has a high opinion of fishwives but who would dare offend them while walking through the fish market.”

“Every day I add to the list of things I refuse to discuss. The wiser the man, the longer the list.”

“In the world you have three sorts of friends: your friends who love you, your friends who do not care about you and your friends who hate you.”

“Anyone placed at exactly the same distance between yourself and your enemy will always appear closer to your enemy.”

Resonant Thoughts

"To this end we now need many preparatory courageous human beings who cannot very well leap out of nothing — any more than out of the sand and slime of present-day civilization and metropolitanism: hum…"

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Philosophy1844–1900

#time

"The rights of all private property owners, even those whose actions decent people find abhorrent, must be respected if we are to maintain a free society... Federal bureaucrats and judges cannot read m…"

— Ron Paul

Medicine1935

#Human Nature

"All men are in need of help and depend on one another. Human solidarity is the necessary condition for the unfolding of any one individual."

— Erich Fromm

Psychology1900–1980

#Human Nature

"The inevitable hypocrisy, which is associated with the all the collective activities of the human race, springs chiefly from this source: that individuals have a moral code which makes the actions of …"

— Reinhold Niebuhr

Literature1892–1971

#life