They have their belief, these poor Tibet people, that Providence sends down always an Incarnation of Himself into every generation.... At bottom some belief in a kind of pope! At bottom still better, a belief that there is a Greatest Man; that he is discoverable; that, once discovered, we ought to treat him with an obedience which knows no bounds. This is the truth of Grand Lamaism; the "discoverability" is the only error here.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But Shakspeare has no peculiarity, no importunate topic; but all is duly given; no veins, no curiosities: no cow-painter, no bird-...fancier, no mannerist is he: he has no discoverable egotism: the great he tells greatly; the small, subordinately. He is wise without emphasis or assertion; he is strong, as nature is strong, who lifts the land into mountain slopes without effort, and by the same rule as she floats a bubble in the air, and likes as well to do the one as the other. This makes that equality of power in farce, tragedy, narrative, and love-songs; a merit so incessant, that each reader is incredulous of the perception of other readers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
That three times five is equal to the half of thirty, expresses a relation between these numbers. Propositions of this kind are di...scoverable by the mere operation of thought, without dependence on what is any where existent in the universe. Though there never were a circle or triangle in nature, the truths, demonstrated by Euclid, would for ever retain their certainty and evidence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My remembrance of the past is a novel I am constantly recomposing; and it would not be a historical novel, but sheer fiction, if t...he material events which mark and ballast my career had not their public dates and characters scientifically discoverable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »