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When once—which every body must be—you are convinced of the wickedness and deceit of men, it is impossible to preserve untainted your own innocence of heart. Experience will prove the depravity of mankind, and the conviction of it only serves to create distrust, suspicion—caution—and sometimes causelessly.

— Frances Burney

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More quotes by Frances Burney

Generosity without delicacy, like wit without judgment, generally brings as much pain as pleasure.

Evelina (1778)

Money is the source of the greatest vice, & that Nation which is most rich, is most wicked.

To despise riches may, indeed, be philosophic; but to dispense them worthily must, surely, be more beneficial to mankind.

Evelina (1778)

Money is the source of the greatest vice, and that nation which is most rich, is most wicked.

Remember, my dear Evelina, nothing is so delicate as the reputation of a woman; it is at once the most beautiful and most brittle of all human things.

Evelina (1778)

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