Just as we are often moved to merriment for no other reason than that the occasion calls for seriousness, so we are correspondingly serious when invited too freely to be amused. Agnes Repplier More Quotes by Agnes Repplier More Quotes From Agnes Repplier It is claimed that the United States gets the cleanest and purest tea in the market, and certainly it is too good to warrant the nervous apprehension which strains and dilutes it into nothingness. The English do not strain their tea in the fervid fashion we do. They like to see a few leaves dawdling about the cup. They like to know what they are drinking. Agnes Repplier fashion drinking tea Everybody is now so busy teaching that nobody has any time to learn. Agnes Repplier learning teaching busy There is a natural limit to the success we wish our friends, even when we have spurred them on their way. Agnes Repplier envy wish way Necessity knows no Sunday. Agnes Repplier sunday knows 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. Agnes Repplier laughter cheer memories Lovers of the town have been content, for the most part, to say they loved it. They do not brag about its uplifting qualities. They have none of the infernal smugness which makes the lover of the country insupportable. Agnes Repplier uplifting cities country Our belief in education is unbounded, our reverence for it is unfaltering, our loyalty to it is unshaken by reverses. Our passionate desire, not so much to acquire it as to bestow it, is the most animated of American traits. Agnes Repplier passionate-desire loyalty belief The human race may be divided into people who love cats and people who hate them; the neutrals being few in numbers, and, for intellectual and moral reasons, not worth considering. Agnes Repplier cat hate race This is the sphinx of the hearthstone, the little god of domesticity, whose presence turns a house into a home. Agnes Repplier house home heart the labors of the true critic are more essential to the author, even, than to the reader. Agnes Repplier critics essentials reader While art may instruct as well as please, it can nevertheless be true art without instructing, but not without pleasing. Agnes Repplier pleasure may art fair play is less characteristic of groups than of individuals. Agnes Repplier fairness groups play Need drives men to envy as fullness drives them to selfishness. Agnes Repplier selfishness envy men I do strive to think well of my fellow man, but no amount of striving can give me confidence in the wisdom of a congressional vote. Agnes Repplier giving men thinking 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. Agnes Repplier had-enough friendship firsts Men who believe that, through some exceptional grace or good fortune, they have found God, feel little need of culture. Agnes Repplier grace men believe The gospel of cheerfulness, I had almost said the gospel of amusement, is preached by people who lack experience to people who lack vitality. There is a vague impression that the world would be a good world if it were only happy, that it would be happy if it were amused, and that it would be amused if plenty of artificial recreation - that recreation for which we are now told every community stands responsible - were provided for its entertainment. Agnes Repplier community happiness people There are many ways of asking a favor; but to assume that you are granting the favor that you ask shows spirit and invention. Agnes Repplier favors asking way Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements. Agnes Repplier achievement sorry reality Letters form a by-path of literature, a charming, but occasional, retreat for people of cultivated leisure. Agnes Repplier leisure letters people
