Quote

if a man be discreet enough to take to hard drinking in his youth, before his general emptiness is ascertained, his friends invariably credit him with a host of shining qualities which, we are given to understand, lie balked and frustrated by his one unfortunate weakness.

Agnes Repplier

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Agnes Repplier
Age: 92 †
Born: 1858
Born: April 1
Died: 1950
Died: December 15
Biographer
Essayist
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Hard
Youth
Emptiness
Men
Quality
Host
Friends
Qualities
Ascertained
Lying
Shining
Discreet
Understand
Drinking
Alcoholism
Given
Credit
Invariably
Take
Weakness
Unfortunate
Enough
General
Frustrated

More quotes by Agnes Repplier

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Erudition, like a bloodhound, is a charming thing when held firmly in leash, but it is not so attractive when turned loose upon a defenseless and unerudite public.
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To have given pleasure to one human being is a recollection that sweetens life.
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There is a natural limit to the success we wish our friends, even when we have spurred them on their way.
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Humor brings insight and tolerance. Irony brings a deeper and less friendly understanding.
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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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Wit is artificial humor is natural. Wit is accidental humor is inevitable. Wit is born of conscious effort humor, of the allotted ironies of fate. Wit can be expressed only in language humor can be developed sufficiently in situation.
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History is, and has always been trameled by facts. It may ignore some and deny others but it cannot accommodate itself unreservedly to theories it cannot be stripped of things evidenced in favor of things surmised.
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The soul begins to travel when the child begins to think.
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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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Bargaining is essential to the life of the world but nobody has ever claimed that it is an ennobling process.
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The great dividing line between books that are made to be read and books that are made to be bought is not the purely modern thing it seems. We can trace it, if we try, back to the first printing-presses.
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The carefully fostered theory that schoolwork can be made easy and enjoyable breaks down as soon as anything, however trivial, has to be learned.
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Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.
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The dog is guided by kindly instinct to the man or woman whose heart is open to his advances. The cat often leaves the friend who courts her, to honor, or to harass, the unfortunate mortal who shudders at her unwelcome caresses.
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Laughter springs from the lawless part of our nature.
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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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Everybody is now so busy teaching that nobody has any time to learn.
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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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Guests are the delight of leisure, and the solace of ennui.
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The vanity of man revolts from the serene indifference of the cat.
Agnes Repplier