Bachelors' wives and old maids' children are always perfect.

Chamfort (1741–1794), a sharp-tongued French moralist and aphorist associated with the late Enlightenment and the early French Revolution, is best known for his epigrams on society, vanity, and self-deception. This remark belongs to the tradition of salon wit and moral reflection that culminated in his posthumously published collections of maxims. In a culture preoccupied with reputation, marriage, and lineage, Chamfort often targeted the gap between lived reality and idealized talk. The quip plays on a familiar social observation: people who do not actually have spouses or children can describe them in flawless, imaginary terms, untested by daily compromise or difficulty.

The aphorism satirizes perfectionism born of inexperience. A bachelor’s “wife” and an old maid’s “children” exist only as fantasies—projections of what one wishes domestic life to be—so they can be “always perfect.” Chamfort’s point is less about marital status than about human self-deception: we idealize what we do not have, and we judge real, imperfect lives against unreal standards. The line also hints at how social commentary can become moralizing when it is not constrained by responsibility. In broader terms, it critiques armchair certainty—opinions about roles, relationships, or duties formed without the friction of actual practice.