the labors of the true critic are more essential to the author, even, than to the reader.
AGNES REPPLIERLike simplicity and candor, and other much-commented qualities, enthusiasm is charming until we meet it face to face, and cannot escape from its charm.
More Agnes Repplier Quotes
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Books that children read but once are of scant service to them; those that have really helped to warm our imaginations and to train our faculties are the few old friends we know so well that they have become a portion of our thinking selves.
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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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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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Letters form a by-path of literature, a charming, but occasional, retreat for people of cultivated leisure.
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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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We know when we have had enough of a friend, and we know when a friend has had enough of us. The first truth is no more palatable than the second.
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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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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.
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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 impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life.
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The necessity of knowing a little about a great many things is the most grievous burden of our day. It deprives us of leisure on the one hand, and of scholarship on the other.
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Every true American likes to think in terms of thousands and millions. The word ‘million’ is probably the most pleasure-giving vocable in the language.
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This is the sphinx of the hearthstone, the little god of domesticity, whose presence turns a house into a home.
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It is unwise to feel too much if we think too little.
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Friendship takes time.
AGNES REPPLIER