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Enthusiasm

  • The spring of enthusiasm that used to give a momentary importance to the least event seemed to have run dry in her.

  • It is so much easier to be enthusiastic than to reason!

  • Like simplicity, and candor, and other much-commended qualities, enthusiasm is charming until we meet it face to face, and cannot escape from its charm.

    • Agnes Repplier,
    • "The Chill of Enthusiasm," Americans and Others ()
  • ... enthusiasm is the divine particle in our composition: with it we are great, generous, and true; without it, we are little, false, and mean.

  • There are some who possess the magic touch, the infectious spirit of enthusiasm; who have the same effect as a beautiful morning that never reaches noon. Under this spell one's mind is braced, one's spirit recreated; one is ready for any adventure, even if it only be the doing of the next distasteful task light-heartedly.

  • The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it: enthusiasm signifies God in us.

  • Enthusiasm, though the seed / Of every high heroic deed, / Each pious sacrifice — its lot / Is scorn, from those who feel it not.

  • There are only two distinct classes of people on this earth, those who espouse enthusiasm and those who despise it.

    • Madame de Staël,
    • 1804, in J. Christopher Herold, Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staël ()
  • Of all human sentiments, enthusiasm creates the most happiness; it is the only sentiment in fact which gives real happiness, the only sentiment which can help us to bear our human destiny in any situation in which we may find ourselves.

  • Enthusiasm is contagious. Be a carrier.

    • Susan Rabin,
    • with Barbara Lagowski, How to Attract Anyone, Anytime, Anyplace ()
  • Enthusiasm fires enthusiasm.

  • ... my mother ... gave us a look that my father always seemed to interpret as 'How lucky you girls are to have such an adventurous father,' but which I always read as 'One of you will probably not survive your father's enthusiasm. Most likely it will be Lisa, since she's smaller and can't run as fast ... '

  • Enthusiasm is a divine possession.

  • Enthusiasm is a plant which grows variously in the varying soils of different natures.

  • Enthusiasm is very catching, especially when it is very eloquent.

    • Mary Russell Mitford,
    • 1817, in the Reverend A.G. L'Estrange, ed., The Life of Mary Russell Mitford, vol. 2 ()
  • ... a mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.

  • Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm.

  • When you appreciate a thing best — and you are a great appreciator, dear Ethel — you rather hug the life out of it ...

    • Vernon Lee,
    • 1893, to Ethel Smyth, in Ethel Smyth, As Time Went On... ()
  • I do believe I can forgive almost any shortcoming a person may have except lack of enthusiasm ...

  • Enthusiasm is ever a gracious, pardonable thing, because in its essentials are youth and zeal and all high, white-hot qualities whose roots strike not in the base earth.

  • Bernadette and her enthusiasm were like a hippo and water: get between them and you'll be trampled to death.

  • A man without judgment is like a car without brakes; but a man without enthusiasm is like a car without a motor.

    • Judith Lane,
    • in Jacob Morton Braude, ed., Lifetime Speaker's Encyclopedia ()