Were it not for the amusement of our books, we should be moped to death for want of occupation. It rains incessantly. ... we tickle ourselves in order to laugh; to so low an ebb are we reduced.
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... we ought to be astonished at nothing; for what do we not meet with in our journey through life?
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne