“Making mental sermons, can spoil delicious moments.”
A Virgin Heart (trans. 1922)
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Remy de Gourmont 17
French writer 1858–1915Related quotes
The Basque girl and Henri Quatre from The London Literary Gazette (12th October 1822)
The Improvisatrice (1824)
“They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever.”
“Jupiter, what spoils of war will our gift make yours!”
Juppiter, o quanta belli donabere praeda!
Source: Thebaid, Book IV, Line 769
Investigations have failed to confirm this in Emerson's writings (John H. Lienhard. "A better moustrap" http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1163.htm, Engines of our Ingenuity). Also reported as a misattribution in Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 25. Note that Emerson did say, as noted above, "I trust a good deal to common fame, as we all must. If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods".
Misattributed
“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.”
