There was a time we was on the land. There was a boundary to us then. Old folks died off and little fellers come. We was always on...e thing. We was the family, kinda whole and clear. But now we ain't clear no more. There ain't nothin' that keeps us clear. Al, he's a hankerin' and a jibberin' to be on his own. John's just draggin' around, Pa's lost his place. He ain't the lead no more. We're crackin' up, Tom. They ain't no family now.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Furthermore it becomes folly to seek a boundary between synthetic statements, which hold contingently on experience, and analytic ...statements, which hold come what may. Any statement can be held true come what may, if we make drastic enough adjustments elsewhere in the system. Even a statement very close to the periphery can be held true in the face of recalcitrant experience by pleading hallucination or by amending certain statements of the kind called logical laws. Conversely, by the same token, no statement is immune to revision. Revision even of the logical law of the excluded middle has been proposed as a means of simplifying quantum mechanics.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was like passing a boundary to dive Into the sun-filled water, brightly leafed... And limbed and lighted out from bank to bank. That's how the stars shine during the day.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is one of those distinctions which is obvious, without being sharp or clear. It is obvious, and remains obvious, to every norma...l mind, although when we come to analyze it, we may not be able to rule a boundary line. It remains obvious, as the distinction between day and night remains obvious, though, when we begin to analyze that distinction, we come up against such refinements as dusk and twilight. There is more than one way of characterizing the difference. Perception is essentially a passive experience, something that happens to us; thinking is an active one, something that we do. Or if you don't like this distinction, because of refinements such as the "intentionality" which some have detected (rightly, I would say) in perception, or on the other hand because of the passivity of that uncontrolled type of thinking called "reverie," then thoughts are something that comes from within; perceptions something that comes from without.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Most people can swim a narrow river. Water is an alien element, but with labor we can force ourselves through it. A good swimmer c...an cross a wide river, a lake, even the English Channel; no one, as far as we know, has ever swum the Atlantic Ocean, or is likely to do so. Even a champion swimmer, if he had business which required to spend alternate weeks in Paris and London, would not make the trip regularly by swimming the English Channel. Although we can force ourselves through water by skill and main strength, for all practical purposes our ability to traverse water is only as good as our ships or our airplanes. And so with the activities of our brains. Thinking is probably as foreign to human nature as is water; it is an unnatural element into which we throw ourselves with hesitation, and in which we flounder once we are there. We have learned, during the millenniums, to do rather well with thinking, but only if we buoy ourselves up with words. Some thinking of a simple sort we can do without words, but difficult and sustained thinking, presumably, is completely impossible without their aid, as traversing the Atlantic Ocean is presumably impossible without instruments or supramarine transportation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you... there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is an agreeable change to cross a lake, after you have been shut up in the woods, not only on account of the greater expanse of... water, but also of sky. It is one of the surprises which Nature has in store for the traveler in the forest. To look down, in this case, over eighteen miles of water, was liberating and civilizing even.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Now I'm going to tell you about a scorpion. This scorpion wanted to cross a river, so he asked a frog to carry him. "No," said the... frog, "no thank you. If I let you on my back you may sting me, and the sting of the scorpion is death." "Now where," asked the scorpion, "is the logic of that?"Mfor scorpions would try to be logical. "If I sting you, you will die, I will drown." So the frog was convinced to allow the scorpion on his back. But, just in the middle of the river, he felt a terrible pain and realized that, after all, the scorpion had stung him. "Logic!" cried the dying frog as he started under, taking the scorpion down with him. "There is no logic in this!" "I know," said the scorpion, "but I can't help it. It's my character."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Ride a cock-horse to Banbury-Cross, To see an old woman get up on her horse.... Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes, And so she makes music wherever she goes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the labor interests, an...d the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »