Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. Nearly all men of science, all men of learning for that matter, and men of s...imple ways too, have it in some form and in some degree. It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission. If we abandon that mission under stress we shall abandon it forever, for stress will not cease. Knowledge for the sake of understanding, not merely to prevail, that is the essence of our being. None can define its limits, or set its ultimate boundaries.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If the black man is feeble and not important to the existing races, not on a parity with the best race, the black man must serve, ...and be exterminated. But if the black man carries in his bosom an indispensable element of a new and coming civilization; for the sake of that element, no wrong nor strength nor circumstance can hurt him: he will survive and play his part. So now, the arrival in the world of such men as Toussaint, and the Haytian heroes, or of the leaders of their race in Barbadoes and Jamaica, outweighs in good omen all the English and American humanity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The great questions of freedom for the slaves and the unity of the Nation, liberty and nationality, are now settled. No political ...or party revolutions can unsettle the established facts, that all men are to have in this country equal civil and political rights, and that the United States form one people, one nation. The small questions of today about taxation, appointments, etc., etc., are petty and uninteresting. I cannot consent, after having borne my part in the glorious struggle against slavery during the last seventeen years, now to endure the worry and anxiety belonging to political life for the sake of the honors merely, and without subjects interesting me deeply involved in the struggles.... I am not a candidate, and shall avoid being made one, for the senatorship or for any other high office.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is a society of laborers which is about to be liberated from the ferrets of labor, and this society does no longer know of thos...e other higher and more meaningful activities for the sake of which this freedom would deserve to be won.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What we learn for the sake of knowing, we hold; what we learn for the sake of accomplishing some ulterior end, we forget as soon a...s that end has been gained. This, too, is automatic action in the constitution of the mind itself, and it is fortunate and merciful that it is so, for otherwise our minds would be soon only rubbish-rooms.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
That air would disappear from the whole earth in time, perhaps; but long after his day. He did not know just when it had become so... necessary to him, but he had come back to die in exile for the sake of it. Something soft and wild and free, something that whispered to the ear on the pillow, lightened the heart, softly, softly picked the lock, slid the bolts, and released the prisoned spirit of man into the wind, into the blue and gold, into the morning, into the morning!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whoever is admitted or sought for, in company, upon any other account than that of his merit and manners, is never respected there..., but only made use of. We will have such-a-one, for he sings prettily; we will invite such-a-one to a ball, for he dances well; we will have such-a-one at supper, for he is always joking and laughing; we will ask another because he plays deep at all games, or because he can drink a great deal. These are all vilifying distinctions, mortifying preferences, and exclude all ideas of esteem and regard. Whoever is had (as it is called) in company for the sake of any one thing singly, is singly that thing, and will never be considered in any other light; consequently never respected, let his merits be what they will.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is commonly said ... that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stick where it is not just. I deny it. A tru...th learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stic...k where it is not just. I deny it. A truth learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
They were fanatical men and women, young and old, all deeply touched by the great rousing call of the revolution, gladly willing t...o fight for the sake of humanity and to sacrifice themselves. There were strangely excited and intense figures among them, believers: believers in this world and utopians who dreamed of eternal peace. And though they were weak and they were few, they towered miles above the miserable figures of the little philistine Ebert and the wooden Noske with his mercenaries, who would soon raise their cudgels and smash them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »