“Men whose only concern is other people's opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the applause of people of poor taste; some of them would be capable of good acting in front of a good audience. A decent man plays his part to the best of his ability, regardless of the taste of the gallery.”

Reflections

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Men whose only concern is other people's opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the appla…" by Nicolas Chamfort?
Nicolas Chamfort photo
Nicolas Chamfort 54
French writer 1741–1794

Related quotes

John Galsworthy photo

“He is but a poor philosopher who holds a view so narrow as to exclude forms not to his personal taste.”

John Galsworthy (1867–1933) English novelist and playwright

Vague Thoughts On Art (1911)
Context: He is but a poor philosopher who holds a view so narrow as to exclude forms not to his personal taste. No realist can love romantic Art so much as he loves his own, but when that Art fulfils the laws of its peculiar being, if he would be no blind partisan, he must admit it. The romanticist will never be amused by realism, but let him not for that reason be so parochial as to think that realism, when it achieves vitality, is not Art. For what is Art but the perfected expression of self in contact with the world; and whether that self be of enlightening, or of fairy-telling temperament, is of no moment whatsoever. The tossing of abuse from realist to romanticist and back is but the sword-play of two one-eyed men with their blind side turned toward each other. Shall not each attempt be judged on its own merits? If found not shoddy, faked, or forced, but true to itself, true to its conceiving mood, and fair-proportioned part to whole; so that it lives — then, realistic or romantic, in the name of Fairness let it pass! Of all kinds of human energy, Art is surely the most free, the least parochial; and demands of us an essential tolerance of all its forms. Shall we waste breath and ink in condemnation of artists, because their temperaments are not our own?

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock photo

“He who has an opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinion and taste of others, is a slave.”

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) German poet, writer and linguist

As quoted in Day's Collacon: an Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations (1884), p. 639

Andrew Carnegie photo
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury photo

“When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers, begging them to taste a little brandy and throwing half his goods on the counter,—thinks I, that man has an axe to grind.”

Charles Miner (1780–1865) American politician

"Who ’ll turn Grindstones" from Essays from the Desk of Poor Robert the Scribe, Doylestown, Pa., (1815); first published in the Wilkesbarre Gleaner (1811).

Herbert A. Simon photo
Vasily Grossman photo

“I’m a little bit highbrow and a little bit trashy…That’s what I think good storytelling is. If you can lure in an audience and have a good time with them, but also teach them what it’s like — to be a person of color, to be poor — that’s a success.”

On how he defines good storytelling in “San Jose’s Christopher Oscar Peña no longer ‘Insecure’ about work” https://www.sfchronicle.com/tv/article/San-Jose-s-Christopher-Oscar-Pe-a-no-longer-11297163.php in SF Gate (2017 Jul 18)

Ezra Pound photo

“If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good.”

Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic

As quoted after his arrest for treason; see Treason: the story of disloyalty and betrayal in American history http://books.google.com/books?id=lXZKAAAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CIf+a+man+isn%27t+willing+to+take+some+risk+for+his+opinions,+either+his+opinions+are+no+good+or+he%27s+no+good%E2%80%9D&dq=%E2%80%9CIf+a+man+isn%27t+willing+to+take+some+risk+for+his+opinions,+either+his+opinions+are+no+good+or+he%27s+no+good%E2%80%9D&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RgacUteRAZDYoATC1IDYCg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAjgU by Nathaniel Weyl (1950), p. 400

Related topics