the most comfortable characteristic of the period [1775-1825], and the one which incites our deepest envy, is the universal willingness to accept a good purpose as a substitute for good work.
AGNES REPPLIERNo man pursues what he has at hand. No man recognizes the need of pursuit until that which he desires has escaped him.
More Agnes Repplier Quotes
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The human race may be divided into people who love cats and people who hate them; the neutrals being few in numbers, and, for intellectual and moral reasons, not worth considering.
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For indeed all that we think so new to-day has been acted over and over again, a shifting comedy, by the women of every century.
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A world of vested interests is not a world which welcomes the disruptive force of candor.
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It has been well said that tea is suggestive of a thousand wants, from which spring the decencies and luxuries of civilization.
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The most charming thing about youth is the tenacity of its impressions.
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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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Wit is a pleasure-giving thing, largely because it eludes reason; but in the apprehension of an absurdity through the working of the comic spirit there is a foundation of reason, and an impetus to human companionship.
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fair play is less characteristic of groups than of individuals.
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the tea-hour is the hour of peace … strife is lost in the hissing of the kettle – a tranquilizing sound, second only to the purring of a cat.
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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.
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If everybody floated with the tide of talk, placidity would soon end in stagnation. It is the strong backward stroke which stirs the ripples, and gives animation and variety.
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It is difficult to admonish Frenchmen. Their habit of mind is unfavorable to preachment.
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We have but the memories of past good cheer, we have but the echoes of departed laughter. In vain we look and listen for the mirth that has died away. In vain we seek to question the gray ghosts of old-time revelers.
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if a man be discreet enough to take to hard drinking in his youth, before his general emptiness is ascertained, his friends invariably credit him with a host of shining qualities which, we are given to understand, lie balked and frustrated by his one unfortunate weakness.
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When the milk of human kindness turns sour, it is a singularly unpalatable draught.
AGNES REPPLIER