Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is t...ruly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood... In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood? Alas! they all are in their graves;LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The gentlemen [at a ball], as they passed and repassed, looked as if they thought we were quite at their disposal, and only waitin...g for the honour of their commands; and they sauntered about, in a careless indolent manner, as if with a view to keep us in suspense.... I thought it so provoking, that I determined in my own mind that, far from humouring such airs, I would rather not dance at all.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!... It wad frae monie a blunder free us And foolish notion: What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us, And ev'n Devotion!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
She knew that Marcel needed her and that she needed this need, that it kept her alive night and day; especially at night when he d...id not want to be alone, or to age or to die, with that stubborn look he had, and that she sometimes recognized on other men's faces, the only look common to all the madmen hidden behind airs of reason, until the delirium rises and throws them, desperate, to a woman's body to bury, without desire, the frightening things that solitude and night have shown them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough," Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!... Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off, or I'll kick you downstairs!"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The poverty from which I have suffered could be diagnosed as "Soho" poverty. It comes from having the airs and graces of a genius ...and no talent.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
With what joy I begin to read a poem, which I confide in as an inspiration! And now my chains are to be broken; I shall mount abov...e these clouds and opaque airs in which I live,--opaque, though they seem transparent,--and from the heaven of truth I shall see and comprehend my relations. That will reconcile me to life, and renovate nature, to see trifles animated by tendency, and to know what I am doing. Life will no more be a noise; now I shall see men and women, and know the signs by which they may be discerned from fools and satans. This day shall be better than my birth-days: then I became an animal: now I am invited into the science of the real.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Only you women have to put these airs on To impress men. You've got us so ashamed... Of being men we can't look at a good fight Between two boys and not feel bound to stop it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »