Destiny has a constant passion for the incongruous.
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
"Life and money both behave like loose quicksilver in a nest of cracks. And when they're gone we can't tell where--or what the devil we did with 'em!"
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
"People will forget almost any slander except one that's been fought."
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
"Gossip is never fatal, Georgie," he said, "until it is denied."
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
Youth cannot imagine romance apart from youth.
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
Most of the houses of the Midland town were of a pleasant architecture. They lacked style, but also lacked pretentiousness, and whatever does not pretend at all has style enough.
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
"You tell him I got kind of a notion he was pushed into this thing by circumstances, and tell him I've lived long enough to know that circumstances can beat the best of us."
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Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
"We do keep looking ahead to things as if they'd finish something, but when we get TO them, they don't finish anything. They're just part of going on."
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Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
"Politics is a dirty business for a gentleman."
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
"I'm not sure he's wrong about automobiles," he said. "With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization--that is, in spiritual civilization."
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington