It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a certain kind of person who is so dominated by the desire to be loved for himself alone that he has constantly to test t...hose around him by tiresome behavior; what he says and does must be admired, not because it is intrinsically admirable, but because it is his remark, his act. Does not this explain a good deal of avant-garde art?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Though Americans talk a good deal about the virtue of being serious, they generally prefer people who are solemn over people who a...re serious. In politics, the rare candidate who is serious, like Adlai Stevenson, is easily overwhelmed by one who is solemn, like General Eisenhower. This is probably because it is hard for most people to recognize seriousness, which is rare, especially in politics, but comfortable to endorse solemnity, which is as commonplace as jogging.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Dissent is the native activity of the scientist, and it has got him into a good deal of trouble in the last years. But if that is ...cut off, what is left will not be a scientist. And I doubt whether it will be a man.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Is there any thing beyond?--who knows? He that can't tell. Who tells there is? He who don't know. And when shall he know? Perhaps,... when he don't expect it, and generally when he don't wish it. In this last respect, however, all are not alike; it depends a good deal upon education, something upon nerves and habits--but most upon digestion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said ...the Cat. "I don't much care where--" said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat. "Mas long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation. "Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We used chamber-pots a good deal.... My mother ... loved to repeat: "When did the queen reign over China?" This whimsical and harm...less scatological pun was my first introduction to the wonderful world of verbal transformations, and also a first perception that a joke need not be funny to give pleasure.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a parallel between the twos and the tens. Tens are trying to test their abilities again, sizing up and experimenting to d...iscover how to fit in. They don't mean everything they do and say. They are just testing. . . . Take a good deal of your daughter's behavior with a grain of salt. Try to handle the really outrageous as matter-of-factly as you would a mistake in grammar or spelling.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Merit at Courts, without favour, will do little or nothing; favour, without merit, will do a good deal; but favour and merit toget...her will do everything.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »