The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celeb...rated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever moreLESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I should prefer a Woman that is agreeable in my own Eye, and not deformed in that of the World, to a celebrated Beauty. If you mar...ry one remarkably beautiful, you must have a violent Passion for her, or you have not the proper Taste of her Charms; and if you have such a Passion for her, it is odds but it will be imbittered [sic] with Fears and Jealousies.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Our religion ... is itself profoundly sad--a religion of universal anguish, and one which, because of its very catholicity, grants... full liberty to the individual and asks no better than to be celebrated in each man's own language--so long as he knows anguish and is a painter.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Well may Mr. [David] Garrick be so celebrated, so universally admired--I had not any idea of so great a performer. Such ease! such... vivacity in his manner! such grace in his motions! such fire and meaning in his eyes!--I could hardly believe he had studied a written part, for every word seemed uttered from the impulse of the moment. ... his voice--so clear, so melodious, yet so wonderfully various in its tones!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
How can I live among this gentle absolescent breed of heroes, and not weep?... Unicorns, almost, for they are falling into two legends in which their stupidity and chivalry are celebrated. Each, fool and herb, will be an immortal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As the Americans slaughter millions of turkeys every year for the celebration of their deliverance, the Indians, who should be cel...ebrated as saviors, have long been slaughtered. There was even a time when a white man was paid a very decent price for every Indian scalp he could produce.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-sca...le authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A lady with whom I was riding in the forest said to me that the woods always seemed to her to wait, as if the genii who inhabit th...em suspend their deeds until the wayfarer had passed onward; a thought which poetry has celebrated in the dance of the fairies, which breaks off on the approach of human feet.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »