The spider-mind acquires a faculty of memory, and, with it, a singular skill of analysis and synthesis, taking apart and putting t...ogether in different relations the meshes of its trap. Man had in the beginning no power of analysis or synthesis approaching that of the spider, or even of the honey-bee; but he had acute sensibility to the higher forces.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But now moments surround us Like a crowd, some inquisitive faces, some hostile ones,... Some enigmatic or turned away to an anterior form of time Given once and for all. The jetstream inscribes a final flourish That melts as it stays.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is one principal and as it were radical distinction between different minds, in respect of philosophy and the sciences; whic...h is this: that some minds are stronger and apter to mark the differences of things, others to mark their resemblances. The steady and acute mind can fix its contemplations and dwell and fasten on the subtlest distinctions: the lofty and discursive mind recognises and puts together the finest and most general resemblances. Both kinds however easily err in excess, by catching the one at gradations, the other at shadows.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, p...olitical cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph; killing will ...be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtle, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humour and so little wi...t in their literature.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I find it more credible, since it is anterior information, that one man should know heaven, as the Chinese say, than that so many ...men should know the world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »