... the highest gifts are not measurable in dollars and cents. Beyond and above the class who run an account with the world and me...rely manage honestly to pay in kind for what they receive, there is a noble army--the Shakespeares and Miltons, the Newtons, Galileos and Darwins,--Watts, Morse, Howe, Lincoln, Garrison, John Brown--a part of the world's roll of honor--whose price of board and keep dwindles into nothingness when compared with what the world owes them; men who have taken of the world's bread and paid for it in immortal thoughts, invaluable inventions, new facilities, heroic deeds of loving self-sacrifice; men who dignify the world for their having lived in it and to whom the world will ever bow in grateful worship as its heroes and benefactors. It may not be ours to stamp our genius in enduring characters--but we can give what we are at its best.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Spring is strong and virtuous, Broad-sowing, cheerful, plenteous,... Quickening underneath the mould Grains beyond the price of gold. So deep and large her bounties are, That one broad, long midsummer day Shall to the planet overpay The ravage of a year of war.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The sure characteristic of a sound and strong mind is, to find, in everything, those certain bounds, quos ultra citrave nequit con...sistere rectum. These boundaries are marked out by a very fine line, which only good sense and attention can discover; it is much too fine for vulgar eyes. In manners, this line is good breeding; beyond it, is troublesome ceremony; short of it, is unbecoming negligence and inattention. In morals, it divides ostentatious Puritanism from criminal relaxation; in religion, superstition from impiety; and, in short, every virtue from its kindred vice or weakness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
'Who knocks?' 'I, who was beautiful, Beyond all dreams to restore,... I from the roots of the dark thorn am hither, And knock on the door.'LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All urbanization, pushed beyond a certain point, automatically becomes suburbanization.... Every great city is just a collection o...f suburbs. Its inhabitants ... do not live in their city; they merely inhabit it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
She might have been old once and now, miraculously, young again--but with the memory of that other life intact. She seemed to know... the world down there in the dark hall and beyond for what it was. Yet knowing, she still longed to leave this safe, sunlit place at the top of the house for the challenge there.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... we've allowed a youth-centered culture to leave us so estranged from our future selves that, when asked about the years beyond... fifty, sixty, or seventy--all part of the average human life span providing we can escape hunger, violence, and other epidemics--many people can see only a blank screen, or one on which they project fear of disease and democracy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »