I write about violence as naturally as Jane Austen wrote about manners. Violence shapes and obsesses our society, and if we do not... stop being violent we have no future.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I was always able to understand my friend who decided to quit smoking and who, through an effort of will, succeeded in doing so. O...ne morning, he opened the newspaper, read that the first H- bomb had exploded, found out about the bomb's admirable effects and went straight to the tobacconist's.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
How might one describe Max Beerbohm to someone who knows nothing about him? Well, for a start, one might imagine D.H. Lawrence. Pi...cture the shagginess of Lawrence, his thick beard, his rough-cut clothes, his disdain for all the social and physical niceties. Recall his passionateness--his passion, so to say, for passion itself--his darkness, his gloom. Think back to his appeal to the primary instincts, his personal messianism, his refusal to deal with anything smaller than capital "D" Destiny. Do not neglect his humorlessness, his distaste for all that otherwise passed for being civilized, his blood theories and manifold roiling hatreds. Have you, then, D.H. Lawrence firmly in mind? Splendid. Now reverse all of Lawrence's qualities and you will have a fair beginning notion of Max Beerbohm, who, after allowing that Lawrence was a man of "unquestionable genius," felt it necessary to add, "he never realized, don't you know--he never suspected that to be stark, staring mad is somewhat of a handicap to a writer."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[H]ow do I pity those who (assuming the name of friends) surround themselves with maxims importing the wisdom of doubt and suspici...on, 'til they impose on themselves that very hard task of laboring through life without ever knowing a human creature to whom they can make the proper use of language and freely speak the dictates of their hearts!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Mead had studied for the ministry, but had lost his faith and took great delight in blasphemy. Capt. Charles H. Frady, pioneer mis...sionary, held a meeting here and brought Mead back into the fold. He then became so devout that, one Sunday, when he happened upon a swimming party, he shot at the people in the river, and threatened to kill anyone he again caught desecrating the Sabbath.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Looking in on our academic circles was the usual quota of P.H.T.'s, the Putting Husband Throughs, young women who with high hopes ...work for years to earn money for their husbands' doctorates. Year after year they slave on, often forced to forgo bearing children until it is too late, sacrificing pleasures and recreation for the pot of gold at the end of the gaily alluring rainbow--a doctorate pinned on a man who has renounced the amenities and comforts of life, already the victim of occupational desiccation when he gets his medal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »