The essence of humor is that it should be unexpected, that it should embody an element of surprise, that it should startle us out of that reasonable gravity which, after all, must be our habitual frame of mind.
AGNES REPPLIERMen who believe that, through some exceptional grace or good fortune, they have found God, feel little need of culture.
More Agnes Repplier Quotes
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Too much rigidity on the part of teachers should be followed by a brisk spirit of insubordination on the part of the taught.
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the pleasure of possession, whether we possess trinkets, or offspring – or possibly books, or prints, or chessmen, or postage stamps – lies in showing these things to friends who are experiencing no immediate urge to look at them.
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Neatness of phrase is so closely akin to wit that it is often accepted as its substitute.
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People fed on sugared praises cannot be expected to feel an appetite for the black broth of honest criticism.
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A world of vested interests is not a world which welcomes the disruptive force of candor.
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There is always a secret irritation about a laugh in which we cannot join
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Our dogs will love and admire the meanest of us, and feed our colossal vanity with their uncritical homage.
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Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food, and few things in the world are more wearying than a sarcastic attitude towards life.
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Those persons are happiest in this restless and mutable world who are in love with change, who delight in what is new simply because it differs from what is old; who rejoice in every innovation, and find a strange alert pleasure in all that is, and that has never been before.
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Letters form a by-path of literature, a charming, but occasional, retreat for people of cultivated leisure.
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There is a vast deal of make-believe in the carefully nurtured sentiment for country life, and the barefoot boy, and the mountain girl.
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We may fail of our happiness, strive we ever so bravely; but we are less likely to fail if we measure with judgement our chances and our capabilities.
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To be brave in misfortune is to be worthy of manhood; to be wise in misfortune is to conquer fate.
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There is a natural limit to the success we wish our friends, even when we have spurred them on their way.
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There is a secret and wholesome conviction in the heart of every man or woman who has written a book that it should be no easy matter for an intelligent reader to lay down that book unfinished. There is a pardonable impression among reviewers that half an hour in its company is sufficient.
AGNES REPPLIER