For the first time completely and in a new translation: Chamfort's Thoughts, Maxims, and Reflections

Friedrich Nietzsche called him the wittiest of all moralists, without whom the French Revolution would have been a much duller event. Nicolas de Chamfort was not only one of the most insightful and charming thinkers, but he was also undoubtedly one of the most tragic figures of his time. His Thoughts, Maxims, and Reflections, which are gathered here for the first time in full, form the core of a dazzling literary, philosophical, and revolutionary work that quickly gained fame and influence beyond the borders of France. For Albert Camus, these texts conceal a hidden novel: in his critical observations of the revolutionary events lies nothing less than a story of solitude. His work reflects the extreme biography of the son of a nobleman and a parish priest, embodying the societal rifts of the French Revolution that he witnessed and endured. His intellectual and rhetorical sharpness, as well as his political integrity, made him a significant spokesperson of his time and ultimately sealed his fate. Chamfort's lifelong outsider status and his self-chosen path of suffering replay in his death: in the face of his arrest, he attempts to take his own life and dictates his death wish to the gendarmes, which he signs with his own blood.