It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and so make only two people miserable instead of four, b...esides being very amusing.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
'Tis the maddest trick a man can ever play in his whole life, to let his breath sneak out of his body without any more ado, and wi...thout so much as a rap o'er the pate, or a kick of the guts; to go out like the snuff of a farthing candle, and die merely of the mulligrubs, or the sullens.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications: with address enough to refuse, without offending; or, by ...your manner of granting, to double the obligation: dexterity enough to conceal a truth, without telling a lie: sagacity enough to read other people's countenances: and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours; a seeming frankness, with a real reserve. These are the rudiments of a politician; the world must be your grammar.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A seeming ignorance is very often a most necessary part of worldly knowledge. It is, for instance, commonly advisable to seem igno...rant of what people offer to tell you; and, when they say, Have you not heard of such a thing? to answer, No, and to let them go on, though you know it already.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Many people come into company full of what they intend to say in it themselves, without the least regard to others; and thus charg...ed up to the muzzle are resolved to let it off at any rate.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When you're not used to comfort and good things to eat, you're intoxicated by them in no time. Truth's only too pleased to leave y...ou. Very little's ever needed for Truth to let go of you. And after all, you're not really very keen to keep hold of it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"Medusa, come, we'll turn him into stone," they shouted all together glaring down, "how wrong we were to let off Theseus lightly!"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Man seems to be an animal whose capacity for lies is only equalled by his credulity; it does no good to let battalions of cats out... of bags, to produce whole harems of naked facts, people eat the same three meals daily deception, and are always ready to turn with fury upon the purveyors of bagless cats and facts undraped. Probably their instinct is wise. Who knows?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The only way to find out anything about what kinds of lives people led in any given period is to tunnel into their records and to ...let them speak for themselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »