De Sevigne Quotes & Sayings

The great correspondent of the seventeenth century Madame de Sevigne counseled, "Take chocolate in order that even the most tireome company seem acceptable to you," which is also sound advice today! — Barrie Kerper

The most astonishing, the most surprising, the most marvelous, the most miraculous ... the greatest, the least, the rarest, the most common, the most public, the most private till today ... I cannot bring myself to tell you: guess what it is. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It is freezing fit to split a stone. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

I am persuaded that the greater part of our complaints arise from want of exercise. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

There is nobody who is not dangerous for someone. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

There is nothing so lovely as to be beautiful. Beauty is a gift of God and we should cherish it as such. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Not to find pleasure in serious reading gives a pastel coloring to the mind. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

True friendship is never serene. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It seldom happens, I think, that a man has the civility to die when all the world wishes it. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Writers make everybody nervous but we terrify Silly Service workers. Our apartments always look like a front for something, and no matter how carefully we tidy up for guests we always seem to miss the note card that says, "Margaret has to die soon." We own the kind of books that spies use to construct codes, like The Letters of Mme. de Sevigne, and we are the only people in the world who write oxymoron in the margin of the Bible. Manuscripts in the fridge in case of fire, Strunk's Elements in the bathroom, the Laramie City Directory explained away with "It might come in handy," all strike fear in the GS-7 heart. Nobody really wants to sleep with a writer, but Silly Service workers won't even talk to us. — Florence King

I love you so passionately, that I hide a great part of my love, so as not to oppress you with it. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It is day by day that we go forward; today we are as we were yesterday and tomorrow we shall be like ourselves today. So we go on without being aware of it, and this is one of the miracles of Providence that I so love. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Happiness, like misfortunes, never comes alone. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

There is no one who does not represent a danger to someone. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

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. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

There are some people who never acknowledge themselves in the wrong; God help them! — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

War often breaks out when there is the most talk of peace. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Ingratitude calls forth reproaches as gratitude brings renewed kindnesses. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal De Sevigne

Gloom and sadness are poison to us, and the origin of hysterics. You are right in thinking that this disease is in the imagination; you have defined it perfectly; it is vexation which causes it to spring up, and fear that supports it. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage? — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Good and evil travel on the same road, but they leave different impressions. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

The heart never becomes wrinkled — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal De Sevigne

We are so fond of hearing ourselves spoken of, that, be it good or ill, it is still pleasing. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

I fear nothing so much as a man who is witty all day long. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Religious people spend so much time with their confessors because they like to talk about themselves. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Faith creates the virtues in which it believes. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

The feminine graces of Madame de Sevigne's genius are exquisitely charming; but the philosophy and eloquence of Madame de Stael are above the distinction of sex. — James Mackintosh

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. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

There are twelve hours in the day, and above fifty in the night. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

When we reckon without Providence, we must frequently reckon twice. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Occupation is the best safeguard for women under all circumstances
mental or physical, or both. Cupid extinguishes his torch in the atmosphere of industry. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

I know of no sorrow greater than that occasioned by a delay of the post. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

We like so much to hear people talk of us and of our motives, that we are charmed even when they abuse us. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Ah, what a grudge I owe physicians! what mummery is their art! — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

The heart has no wrinkles. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

We like no noise unless we make it ourselves. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

The world has no long injustices. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

We must always live in hope; without that consolation there would be no living. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It appears to me that in spite of myself I have been dragged to this inevitable point where old age must be undergone. I see it there before me; I have reached it; and I should at least like so to arrange matters that I do not move on, that I do not travel farther along this path of infirmities, pains, losses of memory and disfigurement. Their attack is at hand, and I hear a voice that says, 'You must go along, whatever you may say; or if indeed you will not, then you must die,' which is an extremity from which nature recoils. However, that is the fate of all who go on a little too far. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal De Sevigne

If we could have a little patience, we should escape much mortification; time takes away as much as it gives. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Fortune is always on the side of the largest battalions. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

We are never satisfied with having done well; and in endeavoring to do better, we do much worse. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

The human heart will never wrinkle. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal De Sevigne

Nothing is more certain of destroying any good feeling that may be cherished towards us than to show distrust. To be suspected as an enemy is often enough to make a man become so; the whole matter is over, there is no farther use of guarding against it. On the contrary, confidence leads us naturally to act kindly, we are affected by the good opinion which others entertain of us, and we are not easily induced to lose it. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

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. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

We like so much to talk of ourselves that we are never weary of those private interviews with a lover during the course of whole years, and for the same reason the devout like to spend much time with their confessor; it is the pleasure of talking of themselves, even though it be to talk ill. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

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 ... — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It is not always sorrow that opens the fountains of the eyes ... — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Death makes us all equal ... — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

In all nations truth is the most sublime, the most simple, the most difficult, and yet the most natural thing. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Oh Dear! How unfortunate I am not to have anyone to weep with! — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It is a disgraceful thing to be ignorant ... — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

This life is a perpetual chequer-work of good and evil, pleasure and pain. When in possession of what we desire, we are only so much the nearer losing it; and when at a distance from it, we live in expectation of enjoying it again. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It is thus that we walk through the world like the blind, not knowing whither we are going, regarding as bad what is good, regarding as good what is bad, and ever in entire ignorance. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It is sometimes best to slip over thoughts and not go to the bottom of them. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

The artist by his work is known. — Francoise-Marguerite De Sevigne

I pity those who have no taste for reading ... — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

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 — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Matrimony is a very dangerous disorder; I had rather drink. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Friendships take work. Use disagreements as opportunity to come out better on the other side — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

It is the fine rain that soaks us through. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Why do we discover faults so much more readily than perfection. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

Long life will sometimes obscure the star of fame. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

[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. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne

I dislike clocks with second-hands; they cut up life into too small pieces. — Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sevigne