I had crossed de line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but dere was no one to welcome me to de land of freedom. I... was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in de old cabin quarter, wid de ole folks, and my brudders and sisters. But to dis solemn resolution I came; I was free, and dey should be free also; I would make a home for dem in de North, and de Lord helping me, I would bring dem all dere.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When I reach the shades at last it will no doubt astonish Satan to discover, on thumbing my dossier, that I was a member of the Y....M.C.A.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All that the Y.M.C.A.'s horse and rings really accomplished was to fill me with an ineradicable distaste, not only for Christian e...ndeavor in all its forms, but also for every variety of calisthenics, so that I still begrudge the trifling exertion needed to climb in and out of a bathtub, and hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense. If I had my way no man guilty of golf would be eligible to any office of trust or profit under the United States, and all female athletes would be shipped to the white-slave corrals of the Argentine.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. ...No virtuous man--that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense--has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Taking men into the union is just the kindergarten of their education and every force is against their further education. Men who ...live up those lonely creeks have only the mine owners' Y.M.C.As, the mine owners' preachers and teachers, the mine owners' doctors and newspapers to look to for their ideas. So they don't get many.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Swann was one of those men who, having long lived in the illusions of love, saw the well-being that they gave to many women height...en their happiness without evoking in these women any gratitude, any tenderness toward them; but in their child these men believe they feel an affection which, embodied in their very name, will make them outlast their death. When there was to no longer be a Charles Swann, there would still be a Mademoiselle Swann ... who would continue to love her departed father.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There's plenty men dat takes a wife lak dey do a joint uh sugar-cane. It's round, juicy an' sweet when dey gits it. But de squeeze... an' grind, squeeze an' grind an' wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat's in 'em out. When dey's satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey treats dem jes lak dey do a cane-chew. Dey throws 'em away. Dey knows whut dey is doin' while dey is at it, an hates theirselves fuh it but they keeps on hangin' after huh tell she's empty. Den dey hates huh fuh bein' a cane-chew an' in de way.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One of the joys our technological civilisation has lost is the excitement with which seasonal flowers and fruits were welcomed; th...e first daffodil, strawberry or cherry are now things of the past, along with their precious moment of arrival. Even the tangerine--now a satsuma or clementine--appears de-pipped months before Christmas.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I was a fire-breathing Catholic C.O., and made my manic statement,... telling off the state and president, and then sat waiting sentence in the bull pen beside a Negro boy with curlicues of marijuana in his hair.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »