C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Madame de Maintenon
All pleasures are commendable that do not culminate in regret.
Behold the fine appointment he makes with me; that man never did love anyone but himself.
Contempt is the only way to triumph over calumny.
Delicacy is to affectation what grace is to beauty.
Evil report, like the Italian stiletto, is an assassin’s weapon, worthy only of the bravo.
Hope says to us constantly, “Go on, go on,” and leads us thus to the grave.
In manners, tranquillity is the supreme power.
In society mediocrity is not alone dangerous, it is fatal.
It is not the absence, but the mastery, of our passions which affords happiness.
It is with many enterprises as with striking fire; we do not meet with success except by reiterated efforts, and often at the instant when we despaired of success.
Nothing is more easy than irreproachable conduct.
One triumphs over calumny only by disdaining it.
Parley and surrender signify the same thing where virtue is concerned.
Philosophy may raise us above grandeur, but nothing can elevate us above the ennui which accompanies it.
Save those who fill the highest stations, I know of none more unfortunate than those who envy them.
Sin is not so sinful as hypocrisy.
The height of power in women, so far as manners are concerned, rests in tranquillity.
The scars of the body—what are they, compared to the hidden ones of the heart?
The true way to soften one’s troubles is to solace those of others.
There is this important difference between love and friendship: while the former delights in extremes and opposites, the latter demands equalities.
You know that in everything women write there are always a thousand faults of grammar, but, with your permission, a harmony which is rare in the writings of men.