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At the age when the faculties droop, when stern experience has destroyed all sweet illusions, man may seek solitude; but, at twenty, the affections which he is compelled to repress are a tomb in which he buries himself alive.

— Émile de Girardin A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)

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Source: p. 19
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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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Émile de Girardin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.