A plane is a bad place for an all-out sleep, but a good place to begin rest and recovery from the trip to the faraway places you'v...e been, a decompression chamber between Here and There. Though a plane is not the ideal place really to think, to reassess or reevaluate things, it is a great place to have the illusion of doing so, and often the illusion will suffice.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hereabouts our Indian told us at length the story of their contention with the priest respecting schools. He thought a great deal ...of education and had recommended it to his tribe. His argument in its favor was, that if you had been to college and learnt to calculate, you could "keep 'um property,--no other way." He said that his boy was the best scholar in the school at Oldtown, to which he went with whites. He himself is a Protestant, and goes to church regularly at Oldtown. According to his account, a good many of his tribe are Protestants, and many of the Catholics also are in favor of schools. Some years ago they had a schoolmaster, a Protestant, whom they liked very well. The priest came and said that they must send him away, and finally he had such influence, telling them that they would go to the bad place at last if they retained him, that they sent him away. The school party, though numerous, were about giving up. Bishop Fenwick came from Boston and used his influence against them. But our Indian told his side that they must not give up, must hold on, they were the strongest. If they gave up, then they would have no party. But they answered that it was "no use, priest too strong, we'd better give up." At length he persuaded them to make a stand. The priest was going for a sign to cut down the liberty-pole. So Polis and his party had a secret meeting about it; he got ready fifteen or twenty stout young men, "stript 'um naked, and painted 'um like old times," and told them that when the priest and his party went to cut down the liberty-pole, they were to rush up, take hold of it, and prevent them, and he assured them that there would be no war, only noise,--"no war where priest is." He kept his men concealed in a house near by, and when the priest's party were about to cut down the liberty-pole, the fall of which would have been a death-blow to the school party, he gave a signal, and his young men rushed out and seized the pole. There was a great uproar, and they were about coming to blows, but the priest interfered, saying, "No war, no war," and so the pole stands, and the school goes on still. We thought that it showed a good deal of tact in him, to seize the occasion and take his stand on it; proving how well he understood those with whom he had to deal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Galway is a blackguard place, To Cork I give my curse,... Tralee is bad enough, But Limerick is worse. Which is worst I cannot tell, They're everyone so filthy, But of the towns which I have seen Worst luck to Clonakilty.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... geometry became a symbol for human relations, except that it was better, because in geometry things never go bad. If certain t...hings occur, if certain lines meet, an angle is born. You cannot fail. It's not going to fail; it is eternal. I found in rules of mathematics a peace and a trust that I could not place in human beings. This sublimation was total and remained total. Thus, I'm able to avoid or manipulate or process pain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through either the berry of a grape, or els...e a tub of malt. These are the most reliable filters yet invented.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A monarchy is like a man-of-war--bad shots between wind and water hurt it exceedingly; there is a danger of capsizing. But democra...cy is a raft. You cannot easily overturn it. It is a wet place, but it is a pretty safe one.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is no teaching until the pupil is brought into the same state or principle in which you are; a transfusion takes place; he i...s you, and you are he; then is a teaching; and by no unfriendly chance or bad company can he ever lose the benefit.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in travelling in a stage- coach, that it... is often a comfort to shift one's position and be bruised in a new place.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Ideas about mothers have swung historically with the roles of women. When women were needed to work the fields or shops, experts c...laimed that children didn't need them much. Mothers, who might be too soft and sentimental, could even be bad for children's character development. But when men left home during the Industrial Revolution to work elsewhere, women were "needed" at home. The cult of domesticity and motherhood became a virtue that kept women in their place.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »