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Agnes Repplier

Agnes Repplier Quotes

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Famous Agnes Repplier Quotes

“Things are as they are, and no amount of self-deception makes them otherwise. The friend who is incapable of depression depresses us as surely as the friend who is incapable of boredom bores us. Somewhere in our hearts is a strong, though dimly understood, desire to face realities, and to measure consequences, to have done with the fatigue of pretending. It is not optimism to enjoy the view when one is treed by a bull; it is philosophy. The optimist would say that being treed was a valuable experience. The disciple of gladness would say it was a pleasurable sensation. The Christian Scientist would say there was no bull, though remaining–if he were wise–on the tree-top. The philosopher would make the best of a bad job, and seek what compensation he could find.”

OptimismLife AdvicePhilosophical MusingsFatuousnessHome Truths
Book:Points of Friction
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“Anyone, however, who has had dealings with dates knows that they are worse than elusive, they are perverse. Events do not happen at the right time, nor in their proper sequence. That sense of harmony with place and season which is so strong in the historian--if he be a readable historian--is lamentably lacking in history, which takes no pains to verify his most convincing statements.”

IfsKnowsHappensPainStrongHistoryEventsSeasonsHarmonyStatementsHistorianLackingRight TimeConvincingSequenceElusiveDealingsNo PainVerify
Book:To Think of Tea!
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“The perfectly natural thing to do with an unreadable book is to give it away; and the publication, for more than a quarter of a century, of volumes which fulfilled this one purpose and no other is a pleasant proof, if proof were needed, of the business principles which underlay the enlightened activity of publishers.”

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Book:A Happy Half-century: And Other Essays
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“There is a secret and wholesome conviction in the heart of every man or woman who has written a book that it should be no easy matter for an intelligent reader to lay down that book unfinished. There is a pardonable impression among reviewers that half an hour in its company is sufficient.”

MenShouldHeartBookMatterEasyHoursSecretHalfCompanyWrittenReaderIntelligentLaysCriticsConvictionEvery ManImpressionSufficientUnfinishedReviewers
Book:In the Dozy Hours, and Other Papers
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“By providing cheap and wholesome reading for the young, we have partly succeeded in driving from the field that which was positively bad; yet nothing is easier than to overdo a reformation, and, through the characteristic indulgence of American parents, children are drugged with a literature whose chief merit is its harmlessness.”

ChildrenYoungReadingLiteratureParentFieldsEasierDrivingChiefsMeritCharacteristicsProvidingPositivelyIndulgenceReformationParent ChildChildren's LiteratureHarmlessness
Book:Books and Men
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“If we could make up our minds to spare our friends all details of ill health, of money losses, of domestic annoyances, of altercations, of committee work, of grievances, provocations, and anxieties, we should sin less against the world's good-humor. It may not be given us to add to the treasury of mirth; but there is considerable merit in not robbing it.”

IfsWorldShouldMindMayGivenLossSinAnxietyAddIllDetailsComplainingMeritSparesCommitteesTreasuryGrievanceMirthAnnoyanceRobbingProvocationGood HumorIll Health
Book:Compromises
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“I wonder what especial sanctity attaches itself to fifteen minutes. It is always the maximum and the minimum of time which will enable us to acquire languages, etiquette, personality, oratory ... One gathers that twelve minutes a day would be hopelessly inadequate, and twenty minutes a wasteful and ridiculous excess.”

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Author:Agnes Repplier
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“Conversation in its happiest development is a link, equally exquisite and adequate, between mind and mind, a system by which men approach one another with sympathy and enjoyment, a field for the finest amenities of civilization, for the keenest and most intelligent display of social activity. It is also our solace, our inspiration, and our most rational pleasure. It is a duty we owe to one another; it is our common debt to humanity.”

MenMindInspirationHumanitySocialPleasureCommonFieldsDutyDevelopmentCivilizationActivityConversationApproachIntelligentDebtRationalEnjoymentLinksDisplayFinestAdequateExquisiteSolaceAmenities
Author:Agnes Repplier
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