Agnes Repplier Quotes
Like simplicity and candor, and other much-commented qualities, enthusiasm is charming until we meet it face to face, and cannot escape from its charm.
A world of vested interests is not a world which welcomes the disruptive force of candor.
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.
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.
What puzzles most of us are the things which have been left in the movies rather than the things which have been taken out.
The worst in life, we are told, is compatible with the best in art. So too the worst in life is compatible with the best in humour.
Too much rigidity on the part of teachers should be followed by a brisk spirit of insubordination on the part of the taught.
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.
it is not every tourist who bubbles over with mirth, and that unquenchable spirit of humor which turns a trial into a blessing.
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.
It has been well said that tea is suggestive of a thousand wants, from which spring the decencies and luxuries of civilization.
People fed on sugared praises cannot be expected to feel an appetite for the black broth of honest criticism.
Art... does not take kindly to facts, is helpless to grapple with theories, and is killed outright by a sermon.
The pessimist is seldom an agitating individual. His creed breeds indifference to others, and he does not trouble himself to thrust his views upon the unconvinced.
Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements.
This is the sphinx of the hearthstone, the little god of domesticity, whose presence turns a house into a home.
The diseases of the present have little in common with the diseases of the past save that we die of them.
A man who owns a dog is, in every sense of the words, its master; the term expresses accurately their mutual relations. But it is ridiculous when applied to the limited possession of a cat.
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.
It is difficult to admonish Frenchmen. Their habit of mind is unfavorable to preachment.
Humor, in one form or another, is characteristic of every nation; and reflecting the salient points of social and national life, it illuminates those crowded corners which history leaves obscure.
The comfortable thing about the study of history is that it inclines us to think hopefully of our own times.
The delusions of the past seem fond and foolish. The delusions of the present seem subtle and sane.
The man who never tells an unpalatable truth 'at the wrong time' (the right time has yet to be discovered) is the man whose success in life is fairly well assured.
The sanguine assurance that men and nations can be legislated into goodness, that pressure from without is equivalent to a moral change within, needs a strong backing of inexperience.
Philadelphians are every whit as mediocre as their neighbors, but they seldom encourage each other in mediocrity by giving it a more agreeable name.
What strange impulse is it which induces otherwise truthful people to say they like music when they do not, and thus expose themselves to hours of boredom?
English civilization rests largely upon tea and cricket, with mighty spurts of enjoyment on Derby Day, and at Newmarket.
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.
But self-satisfaction, if as buoyant as gas, has an ugly trick of collapsing when full blown, and facts are stony things that refuse to melt away in the sunshine of a smile.
It is not depravity that afflicts the human race so much as a general lack of intelligence.
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.
Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food, and few things in the world are more wearying than a sarcastic attitude towards life.
