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Madame de Sévigné
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“I fear nothing so much as a man who is witty all day long.”
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“There is nobody who is not dangerous for someone.”
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“It is sometimes better to slip over thoughts and not go to the bottom of them.”
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“Religious people spend so much time with their confessors because they like to talk about themselves.”
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“We cannot destroy kindred: our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break.”
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“... if I inflict wounds, I heal them.”
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“... nothing is so capable of overturning a good intention as to show a distrust of it; to be suspected for an enemy, is often sufficient to make a person become one ...”
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“... truth ... carries authority with it; while falsehood and lies skulk under a load of words, without having the power of persuasion; the more they attempt to show themselves, the more they are entangled.”
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“... long journeys are strange things: if we were always to continue in the same mind we are in at the end of a journey, we should never stir from the place we were then in: but Providence in kindness to us causes us to forget it. It is much the same with lying-in women. Heaven permits this forgetfulness that the world may be peopled, and that folks may take journeys to Provence.”
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“We must always live in hope; without that consolation there would be no living.”
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“... carry yourself safely through your pregnancy; after that, if M. de Grignan really loves you, and is resolved not to kill you outright, I know what he will do, or rather what he will not do.”
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“[Condom:] ... an armor against enjoyment and a spider web against danger.”
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“I am persuaded that the greater part of our complaints arise from want of exercise.”
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“We are so fond of hearing ourselves spoken of, that, be it good or ill, it is still pleasing.”
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“... we are always on the side of those who speak last ...”
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“Were it not for the amusement of our books, we should be moped to death for want of occupation. It rains incessantly. ... we tickle ourselves in order to laugh; to so low an ebb are we reduced.”
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“... if, after this lying-in, M. de Grignan does not allow you rest, as he would to a piece of good ground, I shall be so far from believing in his affection for you, that I shall imagine, on the contrary, he wishes to get rid of you.”
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“I love you so passionately, that I hide a great part of my love, not to oppress you with it.”
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“... there are twelve hours in the day, and above fifty in the night ...”
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“When we reckon without Providence, we must frequently reckon twice.”
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“... war often breaks out when there is the most talk of peace.”
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“We like no noise unless we make it ourselves.”
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“Long life will sometimes obscure the star of fame.”
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“... she took a little picture of M. de Turenne from madame d'Elbeuf, who used to wear it on her arm. Madame d'Elbeuf asked her for it several times; she always told her, she had lost it, but we guess it is not lost to every one.”
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“... good and evil travel on the same road, but they leave different impressions.”
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“... I know of no sorrow greater than that occasioned by a delay of the post.”
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“I do not like to employ secretaries that have more wit than myself. I am afraid to make them write all my nonsense.”
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“Ah, what a grudge I owe physicians! what mummery is their art!”
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“He is at present sadly cast down at an accident that has happened to him: you must know he has given his valet a cloak, which he had worn only a year, thinking he had worn it two years: this mistake is grievous, and he is very sensitive upon the subject ...”
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“Happiness, like misfortunes, never comes alone.”
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“She takes viper-broth, which has recovered her strength and spirits perceptibly: she thinks it the best thing you can possibly take. The head and tail of the viper are cut off; it is gutted and skinned; yet, even two hours after, it moves. We could not help comparing this tenacity of life to old passions ...”
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“... it is not always sorrow that opens the fountains of the eyes ...”
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“There is no real evil in life, except great pain; all the rest is imaginary, and depends on the light in which we view things.”
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“... those who are happy enough to have a taste for reading, need never be at a loss for amusement.”
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“... I wish to ask you how you find yourself, on being a grandfather. ... the prospect is worse than the reality ...”
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“... Providence conducts us with so much kindness through the different periods of our life, that we scarcely feel the change; our days glide gently and imperceptibly along, like the motion of the hour-hand, which we cannot discover. ... we advance gradually; we are the same to-day as yesterday, and to-morrow as to-day: thus we go on, without perceiving it, which is a miracle of the Providence I adore.”
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“Coffee is quite in disgrace; the chevalier thinks it heats him, and puts his blood in a ferment; and I, who, you know, always follow the lead, have likewise rejected it ...”
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“... what a pity it is, that the fashion of being in two places at once is not yet introduced! you would be very serviceable here to your family.”
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“... there are some people who never acknowledge themselves in the wrong; God help them!”
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“I pity those who have no taste for reading ...”
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“Coulanges climbed upon his chair; this, I think, was a dangerous attempt for a little man, as round as a bowl, and not very alert. I am glad he did not meet with a fall in solemning my health ...”
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“... we ought to be astonished at nothing; for what do we not meet with in our journey through life?”
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“... it is a disgraceful thing to be ignorant ...”
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“... matrimony is a very dangerous disorder; I had rather drink.”
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“... winter is past, and we have a prospect of spring that is superior to spring itself.”
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“... death makes us all equal ...”
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“... the days, and the months, and the years, pass so swiftly, that I can no longer retain them. Time, in its flight, hurries me away, in spite of myself; in vain I endeavor to stop him, he drags me along: the thought of this alarms me.”
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“True friendship is never tranquil ...”
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“Fortune is always on the side of the big battalions.”
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“The heart has no wrinkles.”
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“We are never satisfied with having done well; and in endeavoring to do better, we do much worse.”
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“[After being corrected by a grammarian for using the feminine pronoun instead of the pseudogeneric masculine:] As you please, but for my part, if I were to express myself so, I should fancy I had a beard.”
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“It is freezing fit to split a stone.”
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“Not to find pleasure in serious reading gives a pastel coloring to the mind. ”
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“Oh Dear! how unfortunate I am not to have anyone to weep with!”
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“The more I see of people, the more I like dogs.”
Madame de Sévigné, French letterwriter
(1626 - 1696)
Full name: Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné.