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All truths are not to be uttered; still it is always good to hear them.

— Madame du Deffand A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)

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Source: p. 9
Work: A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness, 1902
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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Women are too imaginative and sensitive to have much logic.

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All conditions and all circumstances seem equally unfortunate to me, from the angel to the oyster. The grievous thing is to be born.

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The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that costs.

Shallow men speak of the past, wise men of the present, and fools of the future.

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Women are never stronger than when they arm themselves with their weakness.

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One is no more the master of his impressions than of his coughing or sneezing.

A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)

We all drink at the spring of happiness in a fractured vase: when it reaches our lips, there is almost nothing left in it.

A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Madame du Deffand (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.