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.
AGNES REPPLIERLetter-writing on the part of a busy man or woman is the quintessence of generosity.
More Agnes Repplier Quotes
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It is because of our unassailable enthusiasm, our profound reverence for education, that we habitually demand of it the impossible. The teacher is expected to perform a choice and varied series of miracles.
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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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Friendship takes time.
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fair play is less characteristic of groups than of individuals.
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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.
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Now the pessimist proper is the most modest of men. … under no circumstances does he presume to imagine that he, a mere unit of pain, can in any degree change or soften the remorseless words of fate.
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There is nothing in the world so incomprehensible as the joke we do not see.
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There is nothing in the world so enjoyable as a thorough-going monomania.
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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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When the milk of human kindness turns sour, it is a singularly unpalatable draught.
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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.
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The vanity of man revolts from the serene indifference of the cat.
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Art… does not take kindly to facts, is helpless to grapple with theories, and is killed outright by a sermon.
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The delusions of the past seem fond and foolish. The delusions of the present seem subtle and sane.
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History is not written in the interests of morality.
AGNES REPPLIER