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

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

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Source: p. 221
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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All truths are not to be uttered; still it is always good to hear them.

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

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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.

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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.