Avidity

Christian -- in the adorable acceptation of that divine word -- nothing has less in common with the true, essential, and religiously social spirit of the gospel, than this insatiable ardor to acquire wealth by every possible means -- this dangerous avidity, which is far from being atoned for, in the eyes of public opinion, by a few paltry alms, bestowed in the narrow spirit of exclusion and intolerance. ❋ Eug��ne Sue (1830)

Envy and hateful jealousy, rendered still more irritable by the leisure of a cloistered life, are the necessary consequences of such a comparison; and yet nothing is less Christian -- in the adorable acceptation of that divine word -- nothing has less in common with the true, essential, and religiously social spirit of the gospel, than this insatiable ardor to acquire wealth by every possible means -- this dangerous avidity, which is far from being atoned for, in the eyes of public opinion, by a few paltry alms, bestowed in the narrow spirit of exclusion and intolerance. ❋ Eug��ne Sue (1830)

She herself was no exception to this reluctance: Rieff emphasizes that she hated talking about death and "loved living," had an "avidity" for life. ❋ Johnson, Diane (2008)

She caught at it with a kind of avidity, tore it open, and heedless of their presence, devoured it, not only with her eyes: but with her parted lips and eager hands. ❋ Unknown (2003)

The human mind seemed to seize with a kind of avidity on any distinction which took it out of itself, and at the same time freed it from the burden of ecclesiastical tyranny. ❋ 1817-1893 (1906)

All classes of society possess, undoubtedly, though in varying degrees, the important power of exemplifying good or evil, and it behooves them to act with greater circumspection and discretion with respect to the injurious consequences which their examples may evoke, having due regard to the avidity which is shown by weak minds to follow example, however pernicious. ❋ James Sheridan Knowles (1823)

Who can forget, in the midst of the hilarious scenes he toward the last sought with greater and greater avidity — who can forget, I say, the deep abstractions and black moods into which he fell? ❋ Unknown (2010)

Yet his avidity for extreme experience has nothing cold or cynical about it. ❋ Unknown (2011)

And to think that it has less of a message than the Tao Te Ching would be to mistake the avidity with which readers consume them, and the steady upward pressure on standards of living and visible attainment that fuel our culture. ❋ Unknown (2010)

A respected medic by day, Jekyll becomes at night the slave of a drug that unleashes "a being inherently malign and villainous, his every act and thought centered on self, drinking pleasure with bestial avidity." ❋ Nicholas Frankel (2011)

Sadly, I no longer read the literature of the fantastic with same avidity and delight and heart-thudding excitement with which I approached the genre when I was aged, oh, thirteen to twenty-one. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Mr. McLynn is as unsparing of the senior commanders in Burma as they were of each other: The "mentally unstable" Wingate is posthumously diagnosed with bipolar disorder; Chennault suffered from "monomania," was "essentially false" and "joined in the Chinese elite's corruption and peculation with avidity"; Chiang is described as having given his second wife a nasty venereal disease on their wedding night. ❋ Andrew Roberts (2011)

But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents; and I continued to read with the greatest avidity. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Not only did the story take with the fiction-readers, but those who read "The Shame of the Sun" with avidity were likewise attracted to the sea-story by the cosmic grasp of mastery with which he had handled it. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Given the current atmosphere, I was a little wary when New York lawyer Andrew J. Schatkin asked me to create a Publishers Weekly ad for his latest book, Essays on the Christian Worldview and Others Political, Literary, and Philosophical, but I read it with surprising avidity. ❋ Jules Siegel (2011)

You should implement tactics like the ones above to grow your customers' avidity and transform them into core fans who will be with you for a lifetime of purchases. ❋ Lou Imbriano (2011)

In Winning the Customer, we elaborate on this notion, how to identify the levels of fandom, and the different stages of avidity. ❋ Lou Imbriano (2011)