One can be certain that every generally held idea, every received notion, will be an idiocy, because it has been able to appeal to a majority.

van Eyck invited Chamfort to accompany him to Germany in 1761.  
Sébastien-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort (1812). Suicide

Unable to tolerate the prospect of being imprisoned once more in September 1793 he locked himself into his office and shot himself in the face.

He was secretary to Louis XVI's sister and of the Jacobin club.