Nicolas Chamfort Quotes

People need a moral code, to help them make decisions. All this bio-yogurt virtue and financial self-righteousness are just filling the gap in the market. But the problem is that it's all backwards. It's not that you do the right thing and hope it pays off; the morally right thing is by definition the thing that gives the biggest payoff.

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.

It seems that the world considers whoever gets benefit is the virtuous one

Malice will always find bad motives for good actions. - Shall we therefore never do good?

A humanitarian is always a hypocrite.

I have discovered that the people who believe most strongly in the next life do the most good in the present one.

The prudent man does himself good; the virtuous one does it to other men.

The difference between weakness and wickedness is much less than people suppose; and the consequences are nearly always the same.

I think empathy can serve as a moral spark, motivating us to do good things. But anything can be a moral spark.

I am astonished at the pleasure one experiences in doing good; and I should be tempted to believe that what we call virtuous people have not so much merit as they lead us to suppose.

A perfect man would never act from a sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people) like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it is idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits etc.) can do the journey on their own.

The virtuous man is driven by responsibility, the non-virtuous man is driven by profit.

I firmly believe that we're all good people, but sometimes it's hard to understand how to do good.

It is pleasure that lurks in the practice of every one of your virtues. Man performs actions because they are good for him, and when they are good for other people as well they are thought virtuous: if he finds pleasure in helping others he is benevolent; if he finds pleasure in working for society he is public-spirited; but it is for your private pleasure that you give twopence to a beggar as much as it is for my private pleasure that I drink another whiskey and soda. I, less of a humbug than you, neither applaud myself for my pleasure nor demand your admiration.

Behold how all those people are merchants who shun great sins and would like to be good and do good deeds in God's honour, such as fasts, vigils, prayers, and similar good deeds of all kinds. They do all these things so that our Lord may give them something, or so that God may do something dear to them. All these people are merchants.

I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness.

We don't have to be good, you know? No one's telling us that we have to do good things, but we do them because we know it makes other people feel good and it makes us feel good.

Good will, that curious product of consciousness, of leisure and energy to spare and share. That thing we put out against the forces of interest. That extra thing. Religions and nations and political parties have taken it and used it as coinage, have said you must only give it in exchange for value.

She thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.

You should never do something kind in hopes of recognition. Do it because its right. Do it because it makes you feel good.

You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.

Keep doing good deeds long enough, and you'll probably turn out a good man in spite of yourself.

I am inspired when I see goodness in other people.

One of the possible reasons why we might be good is that we're frightened, frightened of God. We want the reward in Heaven, we don't want to go to Hell. That would be an ignoble, ignominious reason for being good, and I think that if anybody was good to you just because they hoped for a heavenly reward, you wouldn't respect them, you'd probably give them a wide berth.