niaiserie

In Pauline this finesse was partially concealed by a languor and indecision of manner and an occasional assumption of 'niaiserie'; or almost infantine simplicity; but this only threw people the more off their guard, and made her finesse the more sure in its operation.

Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon

'niaiserie'; or almost infantine simplicity; but this only threw people the more off their guard, and made her finesse the more sure in its operation.

The Memoirs of Napoleon

SIMPLICITÉ, _f. _, qualité de ce qui est simple; niaiserie.

French Conversation and Composition

The thorough and shameless commercialism of Sex has alas! been reserved for what is called ` ` Christian civilization, '' and with it (perhaps as a necessary consequence) Prostitution and Syphilis have grown into appalling evils, accompanied by a gigantic degradation of social standards, and upgrowth of petty Philistinism and niaiserie.

Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning

To see anything honest in such a man as Paul, whose home was at the centre of the Stoical enlightenment, when he converts an hallucination into a proof of the resurrection of the Saviour, or even to believe his tale that he suffered from this hallucination himself -- this would be a genuine niaiserie in a psychologist.

The Antichrist

Lorsqu'on dédie un livre, on prévoit l'heure où l'ami le prend, jette un coup d'oeil et dit: 'Pourquoi m'a-t-il dédié une niaiserie pareille?'

The Lake

Berlioz even went so far as to describe the overture as _une niaiserie incroyable_, and the vocal part sometimes shows the influence of the empty formulas from which Gluck was trying to escape.

The Opera A Sketch of the Development of Opera. With full Descriptions of all Works in the Modern Repertory.

The thorough and shameless commercialism of Sex has alas! been reserved for what is called "Christian civilization," and with it (perhaps as a necessary consequence) Prostitution and Syphilis have grown into appalling evils, accompanied by a gigantic degradation of social standards, and upgrowth of petty Philistinism and niaiserie.

Pagan and Christian creeds: their origin and meaning

For after all there is an amount of innocence and absent-mindedness in matters of daily human life, which is not only _niaiserie_, but comes very near to moral wrong.

Robert Elsmere

When he was gone she stood awhile, thoughtfully peeling the last bud; and then, awakening from her reverie, flung it and all the crowd of floral nobility impatiently on the ground, in an ebullition of displeasure with herself for her _niaiserie_, and with a quickening warmth in her heart of hearts.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles