A great deal of unnecessary worry is indulged in by theatregoers trying to understand what Bernard Shaw means. They are not satisf...ied to listen to a pleasantly written scene in which three or four clever people say clever things, but they need to purse their lips and scowl a little and debate as to whether Shaw meant the lines to be an attack on monogamy as an institution or a plea for manual training in the public school system.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,... But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings-- I know why the caged bird sings!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o'ersways their power,... How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower? O how shall summer's honey breath hold out Against the wrackful siege of batt'ring days, When rocks impregnable are not so stout, Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays? O fearful meditation, where alack, Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid? Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back, Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For this reason I think it might be better to use, for this way of doing philosophy, some less misleading name than those given ab...ove--for instance, 'linguistic phenomenology,' only that is rather a mouthful.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing. It embodies, indeed, something better than... the metaphysics of the Stone Age, namely, as was said, the inherited experience and acumen of many generations of men.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We do not fear censorship for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liber...ty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue--the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word, that art to which we owe the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A sumptuous dwelling the rich man hath. And dainty is his repast;... But remember that luxury's prodigal hand Keeps the furnace of toil in blast.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature, knowing himself for a man, an...d the equal of any and all governments. In that sense he was the most American of us all.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A man of rare common sense and directness of speech, as of action; a transcendentalist above all, a man of ideas and principles,Mt...hat was what distinguished him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »