A tattered copy of Johnson's large Dictionary was a great delight to me, on account of the specimens of English versifications whi...ch I found in the Introduction. I learned them as if they were so many poems. I used to keep this old volume close to my pillow; and I amused myself when I awoke in the morning by reciting its jingling contrasts of iambic and trochaic and dactylic metre, and thinking what a charming occupation it must be to "make up" verses.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A very simple and useful device is to have a memorandum-book, so small that it can be easily carried in the pocket, to be used ins...tead of your mind to keep note of any errand or any appointment that you may have. The Standard Diary, less than four inches long and less than two and a half inches wide, is one of the best for this purpose. ...In fact, such diaries as these, in their wide range of information, would seem to be all that one needs in practical life, the only other book that at all approaches them in this respect being unquestionably Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Now a Jew, in the dictionary, is one who is descended from the ancient tribes of Judea, or one who is regarded as descended from t...hat tribe. That's what it says in the dictionary; but you and I know what a Jew is--One Who Killed Our Lord.... And although there should be a statute of limitations for that crime, it seems that those who neither have the actions nor the gait of Christians, pagan or not, will bust us out, unrelenting dues, for another deuce.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The struggle of literature is in fact a struggle to escape from the confines of language; it stretches out from the utmost limits ...of what can be said; what stirs literature is the call and attraction of what is not in the dictionary.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The eyes of men converse as much as their tongues, with the advantage that the ocular dialect needs no dictionary, but is understo...od all the world over.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The much vaunted male logic isn't logical, because they display prejudices--against half the human race--that are considered preju...dices according to any dictionary definition.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The Young Man's Best Companion, The Farrier's Sure Guide, The Veterinary Surgeon, Paradise Lost, The Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson ...Crusoe, Ash's Dictionary, and Walkingame's Arithmetic, constituted his library; and though a limited series, it was one from which he had acquired more sound information by diligent perusal than many a man of opportunities had done from a furlong of laden shelves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Actually if a writer needs a dictionary he should not write. He should have read the dictionary at least three times from beginnin...g to end and then have loaned it to someone who needs it. There are only certain words which are valid and similies (bring me my dictionary) are like defective ammunition (the lowest thing I can think of at this time).LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »