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Les Misérables vocabulary
789 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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ephemeral
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synonyms: evanescent, temporal, fugacious ???
► definition
Definition:'which is in danger of speedy disappearance.'Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The Little Prince, p.54 (Katherine Woods translation) (1943)---lasting very briefly"
► uses
Uses:
"We do not record flowers," said the geographer.
"Why is that? The flower is the most beautiful thing on my planet!"
"We do not record them," said the geographer, "because they are ephemeral."
"What does that mean—'ephemeral'?"
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The Little Prince, p.54 (Katherine Woods translation) (1943)
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it was known that they would be almost certainly broken up after fifty years, and in the second, public sculptors knowing their work to be so ephemeral, scamped it to an extent that made it offensive even to the most uncultured eye. Hence before long subscribers took to paying the sculptor for the statue of their dead statesmen, on condition that he did not make it.
Samuel Butler. Erewhon
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He had so long since ceased to direct his course towards any ideal goal, and had confined himself to the pursuit of ephemeral satisfactions, that he had come to believe, though without ever formally stating his belief even to himself, that he would remain all his life in that condition, which death alone could alter.
Marcel Proust. In Search of Lost Time [volume 1] (1913)
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There are fifty-five banks in Port Vila. As far as I could tell, only three were banks in the traditional sense, bricks-and-mortar buildings containing vaults and money and tellers and ATMs. The other fifty-two banks were a little more ephemeral. Vanuatu is a tax haven. Inevitably every year or so, it is listed as one of the top ten go-to destinations for money launderers and tax evaders
J. Maarten Troost. Getting Stoned with Savages (2006)
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