It is only following out nature. As a child, I never cared for things that girls usually do; dolls never possessed any charms for ...me. I couldn't see the sense of cuddling bits of porcelain with senseless faces; the only things I wanted were a jack-knife, a gimlet, and pieces of wood. My friends were horrified.... I sighed sometimes, because I was not like other girls, but wisely concluded that I couldn't help it, and sought further consolation from my tools.... I was famous for my kites; and my sleds were the envy and admiration of all the boys in town. I'm not surprised at what I've done. I'm only sorry I couldn't have had as good a chance as a boy, and have been put to my trade regularly.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No doubt, some of Carlyle's worthies, should they ever return to earth, would find themselves unpleasantly put upon their good beh...avior, to sustain their characters; but if he can return a man's life more perfect to our hands than it was left at his death, following out the design of its author, we shall have no great cause to complain. We do not want a daguerreotype likeness. All biography is the life of Adam,--a much-experienced man,--and time withdraws something partial from the story of every individual, that the historian may supply something general.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefac...tor of our race. He brought death into the world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Some authors have what amounts to a metaphysical approach. They admit to inspiration. Sudden and unaccountable urgencies to write ...catapult them out of sleep and bed. For myself, I have never awakened to jot down an idea that was acceptable the following morning.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We need to nurture uniqueness and independence.... Ours must be schools for ego- strength--the child's ego, not the teacher's. "Yo...u can do it!" has to be the teacher's consistent, over-and-over steady slogan: "You can hang up your own coat...." "You can pour your own juice...." "You can climb to the top...." "You can figure it out." We have no stake in schools where children learn to color within the lines. No stake in pushing for unnecessary conformity, no stake in children submerging themselves in the group, no stake in everlasting lessons in obediently following the directions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Genius sits in a glass house--but in an unbreakable one--conceiving ideas. After giving birth, it falls into madness. Stretches ou...t its hand through the window toward the first person happening by. The demon's claw rips, the iron fist grips. Before, you were a model, mocks the ironic voice between serrated teeth, for me, you are raw material to work on. I throw you against the glass wall, so that you remain stuck there, projected and stuck.... (Then come the lovers of art and contemplate the bleeding work from outside. Then come the photographers. "New art," it says in the newspaper the following day. The learned journals give it a name that ends in "ism.")LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In every philosophical school, three thinkers succeed one another in the following way: the first produces out of himself the sap ...and seed, the second draws it out into threads and spins a synthetic web, and the third waits in this web for the sacrificial victims that are caught in it--and tries to live off philosophy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The shore was about one fourth of a mile distant, through a dense, dark forest, and as he led us back to it, winding rapidly about... to the right and left, I had the curiosity to look down carefully, and found that he was following his steps backward. I could only occasionally perceive his trail in the moss, and yet he did not appear to look down nor hesitate for an instant, but led us out exactly to his canoe. This surprised me; for without a compass, or the sight or noise of the river to guide us, we could not have kept our course many minutes, and could have retraced our steps but a short distance, with a great deal of pains and very slowly, using a laborious circumspection. But it was evident that he could go back through the forest wherever he had been during the day.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I felt more than ever the necessity of my mission. But I went home out of spirits, I hardly know why. I must work by myself all li...fe long.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »