I wish, said Mr. [Fulke] Greville, men would not pretend to write of what they cannot be masters of. Another country--it is imposs...ible they can be judges; and they ought not to aim at it--for they have different sensations, are used to different laws, manners and things, and consequently are habituated to different thoughts and ideas--'tis the same as if a cow was to write of a horse--or a horse of a cow--why they would proceed on quite different principles, and therefore certainly could be no judge of one another.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Best masters for the young writer and speaker are the fault- finding brothers and sisters at home who will not spare him, but will... pick and cavil, and tell the odious truth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Let school-masters puzzle their brain. With grammar, and nonsense, and learning;... Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The heaping together of paintings by Old Masters in museums is a catastrophe; likewise, a collection of a hundred Great Brains mak...es one big fathead.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master-builders, whose mighty designs in advancing the sciences, will lea...ve lasting monuments to the admiration of posterity; but every one must not hope to be a Boyle, or a Sydenham; and in an age that produces such masters as the great Huygenius, and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with some others of that strain; it is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What are we? Well, if you are asking me a question, I will answer you. Here it is: we are this country and it is nothing without u...s, nothing at all.... And in spite of all this, we are poor, it is true; we are indigent, that's true; we are miserable, that's true too. But, brother, do you know why? Because of our ignorance: we do not yet know that we are a force, a unified force--all of us, the peasants, the Negroes of the plains and of the mountains put together. One day, we will have understood this fact, and we will rise from one end of the country to another, and we will form the general assembly of the masters of the dew, the great coumbite of the workers of the earth to clear away misery and plant a new life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have got enough of the old masters! Brown says he has "shook" them, and I think I will shake them, too. You wander through a mil...e of picture galleries and stare stupidly at ghastly old nightmares done in lampblack and lightning, and listen to the ecstatic encomiums of the guides, and try to get up some enthusiasm, but it won't come.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The houses are from five to seven feet high, and all built upon one arbitrary plan--the ungraceful form of a dry-goods box. The si...des are daubed with a smooth white plaster, and tastefully frescoed aloft and alow with disks of camel-dung placed there to dry. This gives the edifice the romantic appearance of having been riddled with cannon-balls, and imparts to it a very pleasing effect. When the artist has arranged his materials with an eye to just proportion--the small and the large flakes in alternate rows, and separated by carefully-considered intervals--I know of nothing more cheerful to look upon than a spirited Syrian fresco. Nothing in this world has such a charm for me as to stand and gaze for hours and hours upon the inspired works of these old masters.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The world is not looking for servants,--there are plenty of these,--but for masters, men who form their purposes and then carry th...em out, let the consequences be what they may.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »