Society is the stage on which manners are shown; novels are the literature. Novels are the journal or record of manners; and the n...ew importance of these books derives from the fact, that the novelist begins to penetrate the surface, and treat this part of life more worthily.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Manners are the happy way of doing things; each once a stroke of genius or of love--now repeated and hardened into usage. They for...m at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops which give such depth to the morning meadows.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The novels are as useful as Bibles, if they teach you the secret, that the best of life is conversation, and the greatest success ...is confidence, or perfect understanding between sincere people.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The uses of travel are occasional, and short; but the best fruit it finds, when it finds it, is conversation; and this is a main f...unction of life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The day of days, the great day of the feast of life, is that in which the inward eye opens to the Unity in things, to the omnipres...ence of law;Msees that what is must be and ought to be, or is the best.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To me, however, the question of the times resolved itself into a practical question of the conduct of life. How shall I live? We a...re incompetent to solve the times. Our geometry cannot span the huge orbits of the prevailing ideas, behold their return, and reconcile their opposition. We can only obey our own polarity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But let us honestly state the facts. Our America has a bad name for superficialness. Great men, great nations, have not been boast...ers and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »