If thou survive my well-contented day When that churl death my bones with dust shall cover,... And shalt by fortune once more re-survey These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover; Compare them with the bettering of the time, And though they be outstripped by every pen, Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme Exceeded by the height of happier men. Oh, then vouchsafe me but this loving thought-- \'Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age, A dearer birth than this his love had brought, To march in ranks of better equipage: But since he died, and poets better prove, Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love.'LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I can't say that the college-bred woman is the most contented woman. The broader her mind the more she understands the unequal con...ditions between men and women, the more she chafes under a government that tolerates it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have this very moment finished reading a novel called The Vicar of Wakefield [by Oliver Goldsmith].... It appears to me, to be i...mpossible any person could read this book through with a dry eye and yet, I don't much like it.... There is but very little story, the plot is thin, the incidents very rare, the sentiments uncommon, the vicar is contented, humble, pious, virtuous--but upon the whole the book has not at all satisfied my expectations.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am going to tell you something concerning myself, which ... will I believe a little surprise you--it is, that I scarce wish for ...anything so truly, really and greatly, as to be in love.... I cannot help thinking it is a great happiness to have a strong and particular attachment to some one person, independent of duty, interest, relationship or pleasure: but I carry not my wish so far as a mutual tendresse--God no, I should be contented to love sola--and let Duets be reserved for those who have a proper sense of their superiority.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appeti...te for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a "taxing- machine;" to the contented, a "machine for securing property." Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth, and compel him to... stay there, he will not be contented, nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They can not tell me.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We sometimes observe that spoiled children contract a habit of annoying quite wantonly those who have charge of them, and seem to ...measure their own sense of well-being, not by what they do, but by the degree of reaction they can cause. It is vain to get rid of them by not minding them: if purring and humming is not noticed, they squeal and screech; then if you chide and console them, they find the experiment succeeds, and they begin again. The child will sit in your arms contented if you do nothing. If you take a book and read, he commences hostile operations.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Pride can go without domestics, without fine clothes, can live in a house with two rooms, can eat potato, purslain, beans, lyed co...rn, can work on the soil, can travel afoot, can talk with poor men, or sit silent well contented with fine saloons. But vanity costs money, labor, horses, men, women, health and peace, and is still nothing at last; a long way leading nowhere.--Only one drawback; proud people are intolerably selfish, and the vain are gentle and giving.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Would mankind be but contented without the continual use of that little but significant pronoun "mine" or "my own," with what luxu...rious delight might they revel in the property of others!... But if envy makes me sicken at the sight of everything that is excellent out of my own possession, then will the sweetest food be sharp as vinegar, and every beauty will in my depraved eyes appear as deformity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »