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What Puzzles Most Of Us Are The Things Which Have Been Left In The Movies Rather Than The Things Which Have Been Taken Out.
-Agnes Repplier
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What Puzzles Most Of

Agnes Repplier
...
What Puzzles Most Of Us Are The Things Which Have Been Left In The Movies Rather Than The Things Which Have Been Taken Out.

Understanding the Quote: "what puzzles most of us are the things which have been left..."

This quote by Agnes Repplier reflects deeply on the theme of taken. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Taken, Cinema, Has Beens, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Agnes Repplier interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Agnes Repplier

Agnes Repplier is celebrated for insightful thoughts on taken and cinema. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Taken
Cinema
Has Beens
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The Perfectly Natural Thing To Do With An Unreadable Book Is To Give It Away; And The Publication, For More Than A Quarter Of A Century, Of Volumes Which Fulfilled This One Purpose And No Other Is A Pleasant Proof, If Proof Were Needed, Of The Business Principles Which Underlay The Enlightened Activity Of Publishers.
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Sensuality, Too, Which Used To Show Itself Course, Smiling, Unmasked, And Unmistakable, Is Now Serious, Analytic, And So Burdened With A Sense Of Its Responsibilities That It Passes Muster Half The Time As A New Type Of Asceticism.
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If Everybody Floated With The Tide Of Talk, Placidity Would Soon End In Stagnation. It Is The Strong Backward Stroke Which Stirs The Ripples, And Gives Animation And Variety.
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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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Envy
Selfishness
The Party Which Is Out Sees Nothing But Graft And Incapacity In The Party Which Is In; And The Party Which Is In Sees Nothing But Greed And Animosity In The Party Which Is Out.
Party
Political
Greed
The Well-ordered Mind Knows The Value, No Less Than The Charm, Of Reticence. The Fruit Of The Tree Of Knowledge ... Falls Ripe From Its Stem; But Those Who Have Eaten With Sobriety Find No Need To Discuss The Processes Of Digestion.
Fall
Sobriety
Tree
To Be Brave In Misfortune Is To Be Worthy Of Manhood; To Be Wise In Misfortune Is To Conquer Fate.
Wise
Fate
Brave
Next To The Joy Of The Egotist Is The Joy Of The Detractor.
Joy
Criticism
Next
There Is No Liberal Education For The Under-languaged.
Education
Language
Liberal Education
The Tea-hour Is The Hour Of Peace ... Strife Is Lost In The Hissing Of The Kettle - A Tranquilizing Sound, Second Only To The Purring Of A Cat.
Cat
Tea
Sound
Sleep Sweetly In The Fields Of Asphodel, And Waken, As Of Old, To Stretch Thy Languid Length, And Purr Thy Soft Contentment To The Skies.
Sleep
Cat
Sky
Laughter Springs From The Lawless Part Of Our Nature, And Is Purifying Only In So Far As There Is A Natural And Unschooled Goodness In The Human Heart.
Laughter
Spring
Heart
It Is In His Pleasure That A Man Really Lives; It Is From His Leisure That He Constructs The True Fabric Of Self.
Life
Men
Self
It Is Impossible For A Lover Of Cats To Banish These Alert, Gentle, And Discriminating Friends, Who Give Us Just Enough Of Their Regard And Complaisance To Make Us Hunger For More.
Cat
Giving
Pet
The Labors Of The True Critic Are More Essential To The Author, Even, Than To The Reader.
Essentials
Critics
Reader
The Most Charming Thing About Youth Is The Tenacity Of Its Impressions.
Youth
Tenacity
Charming
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.
Knowledge
Learning
Charming
Conversation In Its Happiest Development Is A Link, Equally Exquisite And Adequate, Between Mind And Mind, A System By Which Men Approach One Another With Sympathy And Enjoyment, A Field For The Finest Amenities Of Civilization, For The Keenest And Most Intelligent Display Of Social Activity. It Is Also Our Solace, Our Inspiration, And Our Most Rational Pleasure. It Is A Duty We Owe To One Another; It Is Our Common Debt To Humanity.
Inspiration
Intelligent
Men
There Are Few Nudities So Objectionable As The Naked Truth.
Truth
Naked
Nudity
Cats, Even When Robust, Have Scant Liking For The Boisterous Society Of Children, And Are Apt To Exert Their Utmost Ingenuity To Escape It. Nor Are They Without Adult Sympathy In Their Prejudice.
Children
Cat
Adults
There Are People Who Balk At Small Civilities On Account Of Their Manifest Insincerity. ... It Is Better And More Logical To Accept All The Polite Phraseology Which Facilitates Intercourse, And Contributes To The Sweetness Of Life. If We Discarded The Formal Falsehoods Which Are The Currency Of Conversation, We Should Not Be One Step Nearer The Vital Things Of Truth.
Sweetness Of Life
People
Steps
The Vanity Of Man Revolts From The Serene Indifference Of The Cat.
Cat
Men
Vanity
There Is A Vast Deal Of Make-believe In The Carefully Nurtured Sentiment For Country Life, And The Barefoot Boy, And The Mountain Girl.
Girl
Country
Believe
The Pitfall Of The Feminist Is The Belief That The Interests Of Men And Women Can Ever Be Severed; That What Brings Sufferings To The One Can Leave The Other Unscathed.
Men
Feminist
Suffering
There Is Something Frightful In Being Required To Enjoy And Appreciate All Masterpieces; To Read With Equal Relish Milton, And Dante, And Calderon, And Goethe, And Homer, And Scott, And Voltaire, And Wordsworth, And Cervantes, And Molière, And Swift.
Appreciate
Literature
Discrimination
For My Part, The Good Novel Of Character Is The Novel I Can Always Pick Up; But The Good Novel Of Incident Is The Novel I Can Never Lay Down.
Reading
Character
Incidents
There Is No Illusion So Permanent As That Which Enables Us To Look Backward With Complacency; There Is No Mental Process So Deceptive As The Comparing Of Recollections With Realities.
Reality
Complacency
Looks
Every Misused Word Revenges Itself Forever Upon A Writer's Reputation.
Revenge
Forever
Reputation
People With Theories Of Life Are, Perhaps, The Most Relentless Of Their Kind, For No Time Or Place Is Sacred From Their Devastating Elucidations.
Talking
People
Sacred
Wit Is A Pleasure-giving Thing, Largely Because It Eludes Reason; But In The Apprehension Of An Absurdity Through The Working Of The Comic Spirit There Is A Foundation Of Reason, And An Impetus To Human Companionship.
Giving
Foundation
Elude
There Are Many Ways Of Asking A Favor; But To Assume That You Are Granting The Favor That You Ask Shows Spirit And Invention.
Asking
Favors
Way
Democracy Forever Teases Us With The Contrast Between Its Ideals And Its Realities, Between Its Heroic Possibilities And Its Sorry Achievements.
Sorry
Reality
Achievement
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.
Cheer
Laughter
Memories
Letters Form A By-path Of Literature, A Charming, But Occasional, Retreat For People Of Cultivated Leisure.
People
Letters
Leisure
It Has Been Wisely Said That We Cannot Really Love Anybody At Whom We Never Laugh.
Love
Laughing
Said
If We Could Make Up Our Minds To Spare Our Friends All Details Of Ill Health, Of Money Losses, Of Domestic Annoyances, Of Altercations, Of Committee Work, Of Grievances, Provocations, And Anxieties, We Should Sin Less Against The World's Good-humor. It May Not Be Given Us To Add To The Treasury Of Mirth; But There Is Considerable Merit In Not Robbing It.
Loss
Ill Health
Anxiety
There Is A Secret And Wholesome Conviction In The Heart Of Every Man Or Woman Who Has Written A Book That It Should Be No Easy Matter For An Intelligent Reader To Lay Down That Book Unfinished. There Is A Pardonable Impression Among Reviewers That Half An Hour In Its Company Is Sufficient.
Book
Heart
Men
Resistance, Which Is The Function Of Conservatism, Is Essential To Orderly Advance.
Change
Party
Political
What Monstrous Absurdities And Paradoxes Have Resisted Whole Batteries Of Serious Arguments, And Then Crumbled Swiftly Into Dust Before The Ringing Death-knell Of A Laugh!
Laughter
Dust
Laughing
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.
Friendship
Had Enough
Firsts
The Most Comfortable Characteristic Of The Period [1775-1825], And The One Which Incites Our Deepest Envy, Is The Universal Willingness To Accept A Good Purpose As A Substitute For Good Work.
Envy
Purpose
Good Work
A Villain Must Be A Thing Of Power, Handled With Delicacy And Grace. He Must Be Wicked Enough To Excite Our Aversion, Strong Enough To Arouse Our Fear, Human Enough To Awaken Some Transient Gleam Of Sympathy. We Must Triumph In His Downfall, Yet Not Barbarously Nor With Contempt, And The Close Of His Career Must Be In Harmony With All Its Previous Development.
Strong
Writing
Careers
It Has Been Well Said That Tea Is Suggestive Of A Thousand Wants, From Which Spring The Decencies And Luxuries Of Civilization.
Spring
Civilization
Luxury
The Impulse To Travel Is One Of The Hopeful Symptoms Of Life.
Inspirational
Funny
Travel
The Delusions Of The Past Seem Fond And Foolish. The Delusions Of The Present Seem Subtle And Sane.
Past
Foolish
Subtle
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.
Men
Thinking
Giving
It Is The Steady And Merciless Increase Of Occupations, The Augmented Speed At Which We Are Always Trying To Live, The Crowding Of Each Day With More Work Than It Can Profitably Hold, Which Has Cost Us, Among Other Things, The Undisturbed Enjoyment Of Friends. Friendship Takes Time, And We Have No Time To Give It.
Friendship
Always Trying
Giving
Our Dogs Will Love And Admire The Meanest Of Us, And Feed Our Colossal Vanity With Their Uncritical Homage.
Friendship
Dog
Animal
I Am Eighty Years Old. There Seems To Be Nothing To Add To This Statement. I Have Reached The Age Of Undecorated Facts - Facts That Refuse To Be Softened By Sentiment, Or Confused By Nobility Of Phrase.
Confused
Years
Age
The Sanguine Assurance That Men And Nations Can Be Legislated Into Goodness, That Pressure From Without Is Equivalent To A Moral Change Within, Needs A Strong Backing Of Inexperience.
Strong
Men
Law
Innovations To Which We Are Not Committed Are Illuminating Things.
Innovation
Committed
Illuminating
While Art May Instruct As Well As Please, It Can Nevertheless Be True Art Without Instructing, But Not Without Pleasing.
Art
May
Pleasure
We Cannot Learn To Love Other Tourists,-the Laws Of Nature Forbid It,-but, Meditating Soberly On The Impossibility Of Their Loving Us, We May Reach Some Common Platform Of Tolerance, Some Common Exchange Of Recognition And Amenity.
Travel
Law
Tolerance
It Is Not Depravity That Afflicts The Human Race So Much As A General Lack Of Intelligence.
Race
Intelligence
Depravity
Neatness Of Phrase Is So Closely Akin To Wit That It Is Often Accepted As Its Substitute.
Speech
Phrases
Accepted
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.
Book
Trying
Lines
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.
Thinking
Giving
Likes
This Is The Sphinx Of The Hearthstone, The Little God Of Domesticity, Whose Presence Turns A House Into A Home.
Home
Heart
House
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