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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.

Agnes Repplier

Whatever has “wit enough to keep it sweet” defies corruption and outlasts all time; but the wit must be of that outward and visible order which needs no introduction or demonstration at our hands.
AGNES REPPLIER

Corruption Defies Enough Hand Keep Order Outlast Sweet
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 REPPLIER

Element Embody Essence Humor Mind Surprise Unexpected
The party which is out sees nothing but graft and incapacity in the party which is in; and the party which is in sees nothing but greed and animosity in the party which is out.
AGNES REPPLIER

Animosity Graft Greed Incapacity Nothing Party Political
Need drives men to envy as fullness drives them to selfishness.
AGNES REPPLIER

Drive Envy Fullness Men Need Selfishness
A man who listens because he has nothing to say can hardly be a source of inspiration. The only listening that counts is that of the talker who alternately absorbs and expresses ideas.
AGNES REPPLIER

Hardly Idea Inspiration Inspirational Listening Men Source
The friendships of nations, built on common interests, cannot survive the mutability of those interests.
AGNES REPPLIER

Common Interest Mutability Nation Relation
Men who believe that, through some exceptional grace or good fortune, they have found God, feel little need of culture.
AGNES REPPLIER

Believe Feel FGod Good Grace Little Men Need Time
It is not depravity that afflicts the human race so much as a general lack of intelligence.
AGNES REPPLIER

Affect Depravity General Human Intelligence Lack Race
Conversation between Adam and Eve must have been difficult at times, because they had nobody to talk about.
AGNES REPPLIER

Adam Conversation Difficult Nobody Talk Time
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.
AGNES REPPLIER

Founded Humanity Letter Old Real Writing
There is an optimism which nobly anticipates the eventual triumph of great moral laws, and there is an optimism which cheerfully tolerates unworthiness.
AGNES REPPLIER

Anticipate Eventual Great Law Moral Optimism Triumph
An historian without political passions is as rare as a wasp without a sting.
AGNES REPPLIER

Historian Passion Political Rare Sting Wasp
A real dog, beloved and therefore pampered by his mistress, is a lamentable spectacle. He suffers from fatty degeneration of his moral being.
AGNES REPPLIER

Dog Lamentable m Mistress Pampered Real Suffer Suffering
We cannot learn to love other tourists,-the laws of nature forbid it,-but, meditating soberly on the impossibility of their loving us, we may reach some common platform of tolerance, some common exchange of recognition and amenity.
AGNES REPPLIER

Forbid Impossibility Law Meditating Nature Soberly Tolerance Travel
Cats, even when robust, have scant liking for the boisterous society of children, and are apt to exert their utmost ingenuity to escape it. Nor are they without adult sympathy in their prejudice.
AGNES REPPLIER

Adult Boisterous Cat Children Exert Liking Scant Society
A world of vested interests is not a world which welcomes the disruptive force of candor.
AGNES REPPLIER

Candor Disruptive Force Malady Peace Ubuntu World

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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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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