A quotation from Chamfort

Stupidity would not be totally stupid if it did not go in terror of intelligence. Vice would not be entirely vicious if it did not hate virtue.

[La sottise ne serait pas tout-à-fait la sottise, si elle ne craignait pas l’esprit. Le vice ne serait pas tout-à-fait le vice, s’il ne haïssait pas la vertu.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 139 (1795) [tr. Merwin (1969)]

#quote #quotes #quotation #folly #opposition #stupidity #vice
Sourcing / notes: https://wist.info/chamfort-nicolas/73174/