It must be admitted that there are some parts of the soul which we must entirely paralyze before we can live happily in this world.

Chamfort (1741–1794) was a French moralist and aphorist whose sharp maxims reflect both Enlightenment skepticism and the disillusionment of the Revolutionary era. After enjoying success in salons and at court, he became increasingly critical of social hypocrisy and the costs of ambition and conformity. Many of his best-known sayings circulated posthumously in collections of his maxims and thoughts, compiled from notebooks and conversations. This remark fits the tone of those fragments: a worldly observation that “happiness” in society often requires dulling or suppressing certain sensitivities—scruples, compassion, idealism, or pride—that make one suffer amid injustice and mediocrity.

The aphorism suggests that a fully awake moral and emotional life is incompatible with easy contentment in a flawed world. To “paralyze” parts of the soul is to numb capacities that register pain: conscience that revolts at compromise, empathy that absorbs others’ misery, or ideals that clash with reality. Chamfort’s irony is double-edged: he acknowledges the practical strategy of self-numbing while implying its spiritual cost. The line reads as a critique of social adaptation—happiness purchased by self-mutilation—and as a bleak diagnosis of modern life, where sensitivity becomes a liability and survival often rewards a controlled indifference.