There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thous...and others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely DESPERATE. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is indolence ... indolence and love of ease; a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to t...ake the trouble of being agreeable, which make men clergymen. A clergyman has nothing to do but be slovenly and selfish; read the newspaper, watch the weather, and quarrel with his wife. His curate does all the work and the business of his own life is to dine.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Disagreement produces debate but dissent produces dissension. Dissent (which come from the Latin, dis and sentire) means originall...y to feel apart from others. People who disagree have an argument, but people who dissent have a quarrel. People may disagree and both may count themselves in the majority. But a person who dissents is by definition in a minority. A liberal society thrives on disagreement but is killed by dissension. Disagreement is the life blood of democracy, dissension is its cancer.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction..., to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... when a great burly six feet of masculinity with sloping shoulders and unkempt beard swaggers in, and, throwing a roll of tobac...co into one corner of his jaw, growls out at me over the paper I am reading, "Here gurl," (I am past thirty) "you better git out 'n dis kyar 'f yer don't, I'll put yer out"Mmy mental annotation is Here's an American citizen who has been badly trained. He is sadly lacking in both "sweetness" and "light" ...LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In dis world dey's many folks think dey's alive as ain't alive. Dey's alive accordin' to de whited sepulchers o' de world and dead... accordin' to de sperits o' de prophets. It's dem dey ought to cart away in hearses, brethren! It's dem dat's felt tingle within 'em de breath o' de Lawd, like a bird, like a maukin' in de woods, a song full o' warm honey, and all de same ain't follered de call, but has carried deir sperits in a hearse at de end o' de parade of de pomp o' de world. Hit's dem dat dade! Hit's dem dat's dade!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain one bestows o...n it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature. When one feels such pleasure in non- existence, one's inclination can be completely satisfied only by completely ceasing to exist.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being eng...ulfed in doubt. If it cannot discover the claims to existence of the objects of its questioning--and it would be miraculous if it so soon succeeded in solving so many mysteries--it will deny them all reality, the mere formulation of the problem already implying an inclination to negative solutions. But in so doing it will become void of all positive content and, finding nothing which offers it resistance, will launch itself perforce into the emptiness of inner revery.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »