Nicolas Chamfort:
Pseudoniem van Sébastien-Roch Nicolas.
(Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, 6 april 1741 – Parijs, 13 april 1794).
Frans dichter en schrijver die bekendstaat om zijn aforismen.
Plezier kan worden ondersteund door een illusie, maar geluk berust op waarheid.
Vrouwen schenken vriendschap alleen wat ze van liefde lenen.
De meest verspilde dag van allemaal is die waarop we niet hebben gelachen.
Misschien moet men eerst de liefde gekend hebben om goed te weten wat vriendschap is.
The doctor comes too late or too soon.
– Help, advice, or a remedy often arrives ‘at the wrong time’.
– If help comes ’too soon’, it may be unnecessary.
– If it comes ’too late’, it may no longer be useful.
– It can also express a cynical view that doctors—or problem-solvers in general—are often ineffective because timing is everything.
✅ Example:
> ‘He offered financial advice after the business had already failed. The doctor comes too late or too soon.’
Meaning: the advice came when it could no longer help.
🏛️ Origin:
– The saying is usually treated as a ‘proverbial aphorism’, not a common everyday idiom.
– It comes from a tradition of satirical remarks about medicine and doctors, especially in European moral writing.
✍️ Author:
The saying is ‘commonly attributed to Nicolas Chamfort’
– Nationality: French
– Period: 1741–1794
Nicolas Chamfort was an 18th-century French writer and moralist, famous for sharp, witty maxims.
The original idea is often given in French as something like:
> ‘Le médecin arrive trop tard ou trop tôt.’
> “The doctor comes too late or too soon.”
💡 General Sense:
It is not only about doctors. It can refer to any situation where:
– assistance arrives at the wrong moment,
– action is mistimed,
– a solution is useless because it is either premature or delayed.
