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3dcd1de
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Our theory of disaster, of sorrow, of affliction, borrowed from the poets and novelist, is that it is incessant; but every passage in our own lives and in the lives of others, so far as we have witnessed them, teaches us that this is false. The house of mourning is decorously darkened to the world, but within itself it is also the house of laughing. Burst of gaiety, as heartfelt as its grief, relieve the gloom, and the stricken survivors ha..
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William Dean Howells |
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9cc6de6
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It's very odd...that some values should have this peculiarity of shrinking. You never hear of values in a picture shrinking; but rents, stocks, real estate--all those values shrink abominably.
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William Dean Howells |
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f2ebcdd
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No, no. I understand that. And I quite agree with you. But you know I've always contended that the affections could be made to combine pleasure and profit. I wouldn't have a man marry for money,--that would be rather bad,--but I don't see why, when it comes to falling in love, a man shouldn't fall in love with a rich girl as easily as a poor one. Some of the rich girls are very nice, and I should
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William Dean Howells |
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07577ca
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New York may be splendidly gay or squalidly gay but prince or pauper, it's gay always...Yes, gay is the word...but frantic. I can't get used to it. They forget death, Basil; they forget death in New York.
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William Dean Howells |
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9f11fad
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She liked the words; they satisfied her famine for phrases.
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words
william-dean-howells
mgg
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William Dean Howells |
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b76c206
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It's the whole country that makes or breaks a thing like this. New York has very little to do with it. Now if it were a play, it would be different. New York does make or break a play; but it doesn't make or break a book; it doesn't make or break a magazine. The great mass of the readers are outside of New York and the rural districts are what we have got to go for. They don't read much in New York; they write and talk about what they've wr..
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William Dean Howells |
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b9fe886
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I shouldn't ca' fo' the disgrace of bein' poo' if it wasn't fo' the inconvenience.
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William Dean Howells |
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e62a4a4
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and the characters are all invented as to their psychological evolution, though some are based upon those of real persons easily identifiable in that narrative. The drama is that of the actual events in its main development; but the vital incidents, or the vital uses of them, are the author's. At times he has enlarged them; at times he has paraphrased the accounts of the witnesses; in one instance he has frankly reproduced the words of the ..
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William Dean Howells |
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fd8854b
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She was herself in that moment of life when, to the middle-aged observer, at least, a woman's looks have a charm which is wanting to her earlier bloom. By that time her character has wrought itself more clearly out in her face, and her heart and mind confront you more directly there. It is the youth of her spirit which has come to the surface. "I"
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William Dean Howells |
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c87b7ae
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forest to their fields of corn and tobacco on the fertile slopes and rich bottom-lands. The
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William Dean Howells |
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0652568
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It seems to me a proof of the small advance our race has made in true wisdom, that we find it so hard to give up doing anything we have meant to do.
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William Dean Howells |
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7992506
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I fancy you may tell the truth about yourself. But
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William Dean Howells |
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b0188fd
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The stranger looked at his watch; he jumped to his feet. "Nine o'clock! Mrs. Braile, I'm ashamed. But you must blame your husband, partly. Good night, ma'am; good--Why, look here, Squire Braile!" he arrested himself in offering his hand. "How about the obscurity of the scene where Joe Smith founded his superstition, which bids fair to live right along with the other false religions? Was Leatherwood, Ohio, a narrower stage than Manchester, N..
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William Dean Howells |
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20e9584
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in Altruria every one works with his hands, so that the hard work shall not all fall to any one class; and this manual labor of each is sufficient to keep the body in health, as well as to earn a living. After the three, hours' work, which constitutes a day's work with us, is done, the young people have all sorts of games and sports, and they carry them as late into life as the temperament of each demands.
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William Dean Howells |
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05a6c3a
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I wish you to believe whatever you think is true, at any and every cost.
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truth
editha
william-dean-howells
mgg
george
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William Dean Howells |
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e47a320
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I haven't done anything--yet.
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editha
william-dean-howells
mgg
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William Dean Howells |
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e2c9770
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It's astonishing how well the worse reason looks when you try to make it appear the better.
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editha
realitivity
worse-reason
william-dean-howells
mgg
paradox
george
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William Dean Howells |
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33f7a38
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It's easy enough to be sensible for other people. But when it comes to myself, there I am! Especially, when I want to do what I oughtn't so much that it seems as if doing what I didn't want to do MUST be doing what I ought!
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William Dean Howells |
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942a100
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I hope the time is coming when not only the artist, but the common, average man, who always 'has the standard of the arts in his power,' will have also the courage to apply it, and will reject the ideal grasshopper wherever he finds it, in science, in literature, in art, because it is not 'simple, natural, and honest,' because it is not like a real grasshopper. But I will own that I think the time is yet far off, and that the people who hav..
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William Dean Howells |
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a0d02fb
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I don't know," said the papa. "We shall just have to keep on and see. Perhaps when they meet the Prince and Princess we shall find out. I don't suppose a boy would fall in love with a boy." "No," said the niece; "but he might want to go off with him and have fun, or something." "That's true," said the papa. "We've got to all watch out."
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William Dean Howells |
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59c4a4b
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Why, Alma," whispered the mother, "who in the world can it be at this time of night? You don't suppose he--" "Well, I'm not going to the door, anyhow, mother, I don't care who it is; and, of course, he wouldn't be such a goose as to come at this hour." She put on a look of miserable trepidation, and shrank back from the door, while the hum of the bell died away, in the hall. "What shall we do?" asked Mrs. Leighton, helplessly. "Let him go a..
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mum
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William Dean Howells |
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f54e09b
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There's always something to say on both sides, even when one's a wrong side. That's what makes it all so tiresome-makes you wish you were dead. Take the right side and stick to that.
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William Dean Howells |
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ed86c94
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Character is a superstition, a wretched fetish. Once a year wouldn't be too often to seize upon sinners whose blameless life has placed them above suspicion, and turn them inside out before the community, so as to show people how the smoke of the Pit had been quietly blackening their interior.
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William Dean Howells |
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647d1a0
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NoMarch felt the forces of fate closing about him and pushing him to a decision. He feebly fought them off till he could have another look at the flat. Then, baked and subdued still more by the unexpected presence of Mrs. Grosvenor Green herself, who was occupying it so as to be able to show it effectively, he took it. He was aware more than ever of its absurdities; he knew that his wife would never cease to hate it; but he had suffered one..
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indecision
responsibilities
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William Dean Howells |
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1c6ff68
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He parted from him on the usual terms outwardly, but he felt obscurely abused by Fulkerson in regard to the Dryfooses, father and son. He did not know but Fulkerson had taken an advantage of him in allowing him to commit himself to their enterprise with out fully and frankly telling him who and what his backer was; he perceived that with young Dryfoos as the publisher and Fulkerson as the general director of the paper there might be very li..
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indecision
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William Dean Howells |
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f13afd8
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That's what makes me really think that women can never amount to anything in art. They keep all their appointments, and fulfil all their duties just as if they didn't know anything about art.
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William Dean Howells |
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4a52998
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I am yours, for time and eternity--time and eternity.
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love
time-and-eternity
william-dean-howells
mgg
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William Dean Howells |
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413b265
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We live, but a world has passed away With the years that perished to make us men.
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William Dean Howells |
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2372bdb
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The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment.
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William Dean Howells |
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9733684
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And before you know me gone Eternity and I are one.
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William Dean Howells |
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63bdbc9
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He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence [...]
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William Dean Howells |
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3f4f5e1
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The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
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William Dean Howells |
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bb031c2
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Clemens was sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature.
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William Dean Howells |
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626e884
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What the American public wants is a tragedy with a happy ending.
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William Dean Howells |