The aura of the theocratic death penalty for adultery still clings to America, even outside New England, and multiple divorce, which looks to the European like serial polygamy, is the moral solution to the problem of the itch. Love comes into it too, of course, but in Europe we tend to see marital love as an eternity which encompasses hate and also indifference: when we promise to love we really mean that we promise to honor a contract. Americans, seeming to take marriage with not enough seriousness, are really taking love and sex with too much.
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The delicious faces of children, the beauty of school-girls, "the sweet seriousness of sixteen," the lofty air of well-born, well-bred boys, t...
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Repetition is the reality and the seriousness of life.
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It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things. The monkey wears an expression of seriousness which would do credit to any college student, but the monkey is serious because he itches.
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Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.
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Where there is no belief in the soul, there is very little drama . . . . Either one is serious about salvation or one is not. And it is well to realize that the maximum amount of seriousness admits the maximum amount of comedy. Only if we are secure in our beliefs can we see the comical side of the universe.
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The delicious faces of children, the beauty of school-girls, 'the sweet seriousness of sixteen,' the lofty air of well-born, well-bred boys, t...
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Over-seriousness is a warning sign for mediocrity and bureaucratic thinking. People who are seriously committed to mastery and high performance are secure enough to lighten up.
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Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.
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Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness.
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I think this shows the seriousness with which these conversations have moved forward. This commits us as the government to continue moving ahead.
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Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
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We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.
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Real seriousness in regard to writing is one of two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent.
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There really is a desire to move it (peace process) forward. There is a seriousness of purpose that validates that fact and that gives us a reason to keep pushing it,
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Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
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If you can keep your head while all about are losing theirs and blaming it on you - perhaps you have underestimated the seriousness of the situation.
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People do not become convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity or of the seriousness of your pain until you are dead.
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Maturity consists in having rediscovered the seriousness one had as a child at play.
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