Discussion without asperity, sympathy with fusion, gayety unracked by too abundant jests, mental ease in approaching one another; these are the things which give a pleasant smoothness to the rough edge of life.
AGNES REPPLIERIn the stress of modern life, how little room is left for that most comfortable vanity that whispers in our ears that failures are not faults! Now we are taught from infancy that we must rise or fall upon our own merits; that vigilance wins success, and incapacity means ruin
More Agnes Repplier Quotes
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It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves; it is not the business of fiction to teach us anything.
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Where there is no temptation, there is no virtue.
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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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The friendships of nations, built on common interests, cannot survive the mutability of those interests.
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I do strive to think well of my fellow man, but no amount of striving can give me confidence in the wisdom of a congressional vote.
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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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real letter-writing … is founded on a need as old and as young as humanity itself, the need that one human being has of another.
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it is not every tourist who bubbles over with mirth, and that unquenchable spirit of humor which turns a trial into a blessing.
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Who that has plodded on to middle age would take back upon his shoulders ten of the vanished years, with their mingled pleasures and pains? Who would return to the youth he is forever pretending to regret?
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When the milk of human kindness turns sour, it is a singularly unpalatable draught.
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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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The comfortable thing about the study of history is that it inclines us to think hopefully of our own times.
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It is not begging but the beggar, who has forfeited favor with the elect.
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People with theories of life are, perhaps, the most relentless of their kind, for no time or place is sacred from their devastating elucidations.
AGNES REPPLIER