Few things tend more to alienate friendship than a want of punctuality in our engagements. I have known the breach of a promise to dine or sup to break up more than one intimacy.
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A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his engagements, leaves his letters unanswered, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, because he is powerless to turn his attention down and back from those more interesting trains of imagery with which his genius constantly occupies his mind.
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I've given parties that have made Indian rajahs green with envy. I've had prima donnas break $10, 000 engagements to come to my smallest dinners. When you were still playing button back in Ohio, I entertained on a cruising trip that was so much fun that I had to sink my yacht to make my guests go home.
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The general who is able to persuade his forces that there is victory, even where there seems to be defeat, is one who will inspire them to fight against apparently impossible odds. They will, indeed, never suffer defeat, but will fight on until annihilated by capture or death. The secret of success even in the more pacific engagements of life lies in this principle
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The only thing that can spoil a day is people and if you can keep from making engagements, every day has no limits.
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Jury: a group of twelve men who, having lied to the judge about their hearing, health and business engagements, have failed to fool him.
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I felt compelled to perform -- to do my engagements and not let people down. And they supported me, although they weren?t aware how much it carried me through.
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