Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis

Caroline-Stéphanie-Félicité, Madame de Genlis (25 January 1746 – 31 December 1830) was a French writer of the late 18th and early 19th century, known for her novels and theories of children's education. She is now best remembered for her journals and the historical perspective they provide on her life and times.

Quotes

Treasury of Thought (1881)

Maturin M. Ballou. 7th ed. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co.

• I have never tasted pleasures so true as those I have found in the study of books, in writing, or in music. The days that succeed brilliant entertainments are always melancholy, but those which follow days of study are delicious; we have gained something; we have acquired some new knowledge, and we recall the past day not only without disgust and without regret, but with consummate satisfaction.
  • p. 302 (Literature)

• Ah! the spendthrift, love; it gives all and everything with the first sigh!
  • p. 317 (Love)

A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness (1902)

J. de Finod. New York: D. Appleton and Co.

• Men call physicians only when they suffer; women, when they are merely afflicted with ennui.
  • p. 74

• To weep is not always to suffer.
  • p. 105

• If you would succeed in the world, it is necessary that, when entering a salon, your vanity should bow to that of others.
  • p. 185

• Homeliness is the best guardian of a young girl's virtue.
  • p. 194