Time & Perspective Quote by Nicolas Chamfort

Chamfort doesn’t offer comfort; he offers training. The line reads like a survival manual for anyone unlucky enough to expect fairness from either biology or society. By pairing “the damages of time” with “injustices of men,” he yokes two kinds of harm: one inevitable, one manufactured. That symmetry is the trick. Aging and loss aren’t just personal misfortunes; they’re presented as structurally comparable to human cruelty, as if nature and culture are co-conspirators in wearing you down.

The verb “get used to” is doing quiet violence. It’s not “accept,” which has a whiff of wisdom, or “endure,” which suggests heroism. It’s habituation: the psychological numbing required to keep functioning. Chamfort’s intent is less philosophical than diagnostic. If life feels “unendurable,” the problem isn’t your fragility; it’s your expectation that time will be gentle or people will be just.

Context sharpens the bite. Chamfort lived through the French Revolution, flirting with its ideals before becoming disenchanted with its terror and opportunism. In that world, “injustices of men” isn’t abstract moralizing; it’s a report from the front lines of political hypocrisy, where lofty rhetoric routinely masked vendettas and power grabs. Meanwhile, the “damages of time” hint at his own declining health and the broader Enlightenment hangover: the realization that reason can’t repeal mortality.

The subtext is grimly modern: you can’t optimize your way out of entropy or out-argue entrenched cruelty. You can only build the calluses necessary to keep your eyes open.