“To-day we only smile, we laugh no more,
And e'en our very pleasures seem to bore.”

—  François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis

On ne rit plus, on sourit aujourd'hui,
Et nos plaisirs sont voisins a l'eunui.
Réflexions sur les passions et sur les goûts (1741).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 170.

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François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis4
Catholic cardinal 1715–1794

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