The only human beings I have thoroughly admired and respected in the world have been those who carried the load of the world with ...a smile, and who, in the face of anxieties that would have knocked me clean out, never showed a tremor. Such men and women end by owning us, soul and body, and our allegiance can never be shaken. We are only too glad to be owned. Religion is nothing but this.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To have one's mother-in-law in the country when one lives in Paris, and vice versa, is one of those strokes of luck that one encou...nters only too rarely.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Deafness produces bizarre effects, reversing the natural order of things; the interchange of letters is the conversation of the de...af, and the only link with society. I would be in despair, for instance, over seeing you speak, but, instead, I am only too happy to hear you write.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When you're not used to comfort and good things to eat, you're intoxicated by them in no time. Truth's only too pleased to leave y...ou. Very little's ever needed for Truth to let go of you. And after all, you're not really very keen to keep hold of it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was only too probable that among the half-converted Pagans and Jews, any rite, any form, would find favor, whilst yet unable to... comprehend the spiritual character of Christianity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Cliche refers to words, commonplace to ideas. Cliche describes the form or the letter, commonplace the substance or spirit. To con...fuse them is to confuse the thought with the expression of the thought. The cliche is immediately perceivable; the commonplace very often escapes notice if decked out in original dress. There are few examples, in any literature, of new ideas expressed in original form. The most critical mind must often be content with one or the other of these pleasures, only too happy when it is not deprived of both at once, which is not too rarely the case.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties a...re in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Freedom is but the possibility of a various and indefinite activity; while government, or the exercise of dominion, is a single, y...et real activity. The longing for freedom, therefore, is at first only too frequently suggested by the deep-felt consciousness of its absence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Science and art are only too often a superior kind of dope, possessing this advantage over booze and morphia: that they can be ind...ulged in with a good conscience and with the conviction that, in the process of indulging, one is leading the "higher life."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »