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  ...a fine colour and what a plumpness it gave me. Would not you rather be a duchess than a waiting-maid or a nun, if the King gave you your choice?
_Bossuet_. Pardon me, mademoiselle, I am confounded at the levity of your question.
_Fontanges_. I am in earnest, as you see.
_Bossuet_. Flattery will come before you in other and more dangerous forms: you will be commended for excellences which do not belong to you; and this you will find as injurious to your repose as to your virtue. An ingenuous mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof.   If you reject it, you are unhappy; if you accept it, you are undone. The compliments of a king are of themselves sufficient to pervert your intellect.
_Fontanges_. There you are mistaken twice over. It is not my person that pleases him so greatly: it is my spirit, my wit, my talents, my genius, and that very thing which you have mentioned--what was it? my intellect. He never complimented me the least upon my beauty. Others have said that I am the most beautiful young creature under...   Landor, Walter Savage

Excerpt from English Satires · This quote is about merit · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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