Margaret Deland quotes:
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Self-sacrifice which denies common sense is not a virtue. It's a spiritual dissipation.
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Twenty-five years ago, Christmas was not the burden that it is now; there was less haggling and weighing, less quid pro quo, less fatigue of body, less weariness of soul; and, most of all, there was less loading up with trash.
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Grandmother belongs to the generation of women who were satisfied to have men retain their vices, if they removed their hats.
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There's one thing that always interests me about you good people, not your certainty that the rest of us are swine, - no doubt we are, - but your certainty that your opinions are pearls.
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a great moment raises most of the people who experience it, to its own level; and that is why they do not always recognize its greatness - or their own.
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Conscience that isn't hitched up to common sense is a mighty dangerous thing.
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A pint can't hold a quart - if it holds a pint it is doing all that can be expected of it.
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Conscience that isn't hitched up to common sense is a mighty dangerous thing
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Books are like sapphires; they must be polished - polished! or else you insult your readers.
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silence is very moving to youth, for who knows what it hides?
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... safety that depends on an apron-string is very unsafe!
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When it comes to bombshells, there are few that can be more effective than that small, flat, frail thing, a letter.
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the blue and cloudless day closes like the lid of a casket of jewels upon the violet rim of sea, and shuts out the light.
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... Love never forgets; or if it does, it is an imperfect love, like the beautiful love of a dog, faithful and unreasoning.
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... some of the things floating about in the Well of Memory are not worth recording.
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A letter is a risky thing; the writer gambles on the reader's frame of mind.
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I have no faith in a human critter who hasn't one or two bad habits.
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You can't have genius without patience.
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There is no embarrassment quite like the embarrassment of listening to a person for whom one has a regard making a fool of himself.
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What I object to in Mother is that she wants me to think her thoughts. Apart from the question of hypocrisy, I prefer my own.
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a manufactured interest has no staying quality - especially if it involves any hard work.
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There is a bond, it appears, between mother and child which endures as long as they do. It is independent of love; reason cannot weaken it; hate cannot destroy it.
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I'm not to blame for an old body, but I would be to blame for an old soul. An old soul is a shameful thing.
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... if a man really and truly believed that black was white, you might advise him to see an oculist, but you mustn't call him a liar.
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... in a wicked way, it is an incentive to good living to observe the spice of enjoyment there is to a godly soul in a very little sin.
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... is there anything more unjust than to build gold and brass and iron on poor, well-meaning clay, -- and then blame the clay when the whole image falls into dust?
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... it is curious how fatal it is, either to a situation or to an individual, or even to a name, if in an evil moment it becomes funny.
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... there must be reserves -- except with God. The human soul is solitary. But for confession that is different; justice and reparation sometimes demand it; but, again, justice and courage sometimes forbid it.
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... when personal happiness conflicts with any great human ideal, the right to claim such happiness is as nothing compared to the privilege of resigning it.
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a short cut to matrimonial unhappiness is not to have the same taste in jokes!
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A sneer is like a flame; it may occasionally be curative because it cauterizes, but it leaves a bitter scar.
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Absurdity is the one thing love can't stand; it can overlook anything else, -- coldness, or weakness, or viciousness, -- but just be ridiculous and that's the end of it!
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Age, per se, may claim tenderness and pity, but not respect; that only comes when the years have brought humanity and wisdom and the experience that worketh hope.
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Age, with shamefaced relief, has learned the solvent quality of Time. It is this quality which makes possible the contemplation of certain embarrassing heavenly reunions ...
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anger as well as love casts out fear ...
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as I get older there is nothing more constantly astonishing to me than the goodness of the Bad; - unless it is the badness of the Good.
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As soon as you feel too old to do a thing, do it.
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by some mysterious method, Susan Carr's gossip gave the listener a gentler feeling towards his kind. When she spoke of her neighbors' faults, one knew that somehow they were simply virtues gone to seed ...
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Convictions do not imply reasons.
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Every new truth begins in a shocking heresy.
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faith, it seems to me, is not the holding of certain dogmas; it is simply openness and readiness of heart to believe any truth which God may show.
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Fighting should be left to dogs and cats and chickens, who can't reason.
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gossip, after it reaches a certain point of insult and falsehood, becomes a source of amusement to its victims.
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Grief is the price Love pays for being in the same world with Death.
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habit does much to reconcile us to unpleasantness ...
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Hearts don't come when Reason whistles to 'em.
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Home is the best place to be sick in.
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I have heard that a man might be his own lawyer, but you can't be your own judge.
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I notice that when people have no sense of responsibility, you call them either criminals or geniuses.
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If you are kind to an enemy, you cannot hate him.
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if you give way to fear, you'll be a coward; and ... a coward is apt to be a liar. The devil's first name is Fear ...
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In connection with death, or birth, or love, modesty is only a rather puerile self-consciousness.
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Isn't there any statute of limitation in things spiritual? I don't believe any large mind dwells on its sins, any more than on its virtues!
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It is useless to deny that, unless one has a genius for imparting knowledge, teaching is a drudgery.
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it's better to be crazy on one point and happy, than sane on all points and unhappy.
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I've always thought the law ought to put on spectacles, it has mighty poor eyesight once in a while.
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Lawyers make their cake by cooking up other people's troubles.
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men love their wives not because of their virtues, but in spite of them.
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moral vanity is the snare of good people.
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Nature is perfectly impartial. Brain has no sex!
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Nobody who is somebody looks down on anybody.
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nothing is as conventional as adolescence.
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nothing may be more selfish than remorse ...
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Of all the bitter and heavy things in this sorry old world, the not being necessary is the bitterest and heaviest.
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One must desire something to be alive.
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One must desire something to be alive; perhaps absolute satisfaction is only another name for Death.
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Real divorce takes place without a decree ...
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Some time in our lives every man and woman of us, putting out our hands toward the stars, touch on either side our prison walls the immutable limitations of temperament
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The anger of slow, mild, loving people has a lasting quality that mere bad-tempered folk cannot understand.
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the attempt to break a habit of years is necessarily experimental.
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The fact is, the secret of happiness is the sense of proportion ...
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The insolence of time is like a blow in the face from an unseen enemy.
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the profession of the ministry is like matrimony: if it is possible for you to keep out of it, it's a sign that you've no business to go into it!
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there are few things that are more endearing than the grace of listening with attention; indeed, it is more than endearing, it is impressive - for no one knows what wisdom lies concealed in silence!
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there couldn't be war, unless lies were believed. War has to be nourished by lies.
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There isn't any virtue where there has never been any temptation.
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To talk over a quarrel, with its inevitable accompaniment of self-justification, is too much like handling cobwebs to be very successful.
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War is wicked, beause it is murder and hate. And it is foolish, because hate and murder can only destroy people's bodies, not change their minds.
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we middle-aged folk have the education of life, truly; we know the multiplication table of anxieties and sorrows, the subtraction table of loss, the division table of responsibility.
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weakness is a great bully without knowing it ...
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we've all of us got to meet the devil alone. Temptation is a lonely business ...
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When did Youth ever thank Age for its wisdom?
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When one promise jostles another, one of 'em isn't a promise.
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When two duties jostle each other, one of 'em isn't a duty.
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Truth is like heat or light; its vibrations are endless, and are endlessly felt.
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... perhaps there is no conceit so arrogant as the conceit which follows a conviction of emancipation.
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as everybody knows, truthfulness and agreeable manners are often divorced on the ground of incompatibility.
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conceit is the devil's horse, and reformers generally ride it when they are in a hurry.