in Quotes & Aphorisms (Books)
Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Wisdom)
A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.
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Formerly, if you killed a man, it was possible that you were insane; but now, if you, having friends and money, kill a man, it is evidence that you are a lunatic.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Books)
Surely the test of a novel's characters is that you feel a strong interest in them and their affairs, the good to be successful, the bad to suffer failure. Well, in John Ward, you feel no divided interest, no discriminating interest, you want them all to land in hell together, and right away.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Death)
James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration.
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Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any.
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I do not take any credit to my better-balanced head because I never went crazy on Presbyterianism. We go too slow for that. You never see us ranting and shouting and tearing up the ground, You never heard of a Presbyterian going crazy on religion. Notice us, and you will see how we do. We get up of a Sunday morning and put on the best harness we have got and trip cheerfully down town; we subside into solemnity and enter the church; we stand up and duck our heads and bear down on a hymn book propped on the pew in front when the minister prays; we stand up again while our hired choir are singing, and look in the hymn book and check off the verses to see that they don't shirk any of the stanzas; we sit silent and grave while the minister is preaching, and count the waterfalls and bonnets furtively, and catch flies; we grab our hats and bonnets when the benediction is begun; when it is finished, we shove, so to speak. No frenzy, no fanaticism no skirmishing; everything perfectly serene. You never see any of us Presbyterians getting in a sweat about religion and trying to massacre the neighbors. Let us all be content with the tried and safe old regular religions, and take no chances on wildcat.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Wisdom)
When the human race is not grotesque it is because it is asleep and losing its opportunity.
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Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
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Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.
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