Daily Aphorism

Thought consoles all and remedies all. If sometimes it harms you, ask it for the remedy and it will give it to you.

La pensée console de tout et remédie à tout. Si quelquefois elle vous fait du mal, demandez-lui le remède du mal qu'elle vous a fait, et elle vous le donnera.

- Chamfort, Maxims and Thoughts, Characters and Anecdotes, aphorism 29

Chamfort wanted to see France a republic, took part in storming the Bastille and wrote speeches for statesmen like Mirabeau. But when he saw Robespierre and the Reign of Terror, he spoke out against it as acerbically as he had against the king and nobility. When Marat was killed, he stated gleefully 'King Murat is dead!'. He was thrown into this prison, the Madelonnettes Convent, which later held the Marquis de Sade. It was notoriously unhygienic, with overflowing toilets, foul air, vermin and poor food. He only stayed for two days, and was afterward under house arrest in a small apartment nearby. One day, his guard complained to him that the theaters in Paris hadn't had any audiences. Chamfort replied, 'Tragedy no longer has the same effect once it roams the streets.'