Religious people spend so much time with their confessors because they like to talk about themselves.
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 SevigneIn 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... truth ... carries authority with it; while falsehood and lies skulk under a load of words, without having the power of persuasion; the more they attempt to show themselves, the more they are entangled.
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de SevigneWe 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