Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand (1697–1780) was a French hostess and patron of the arts. She was born at the Château de Chamrond, in Ligny-en-Brionnais, a village near Charolles of a noble family. Educated at a convent in Paris, she showed great intelligence and a sceptical, cynical turn of mind. The abbess, alarmed at the freedom of her views, arranged for Jean Baptiste Massillon to visit and reason with her, but he accomplished nothing. Her parents married her at twenty-one years of age to her kinsman, Jean Baptiste de la Lande, marquis du Deffand, without consulting her inclination. The marriage was an unhappy one, and the couple separated in 1722.
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The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult.
—Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand
Women are never stronger than when they arm themselves with their weakness.
—Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand
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