Even to this day it is easier than it ought to be for me to get a rise out of an American by telling him something about himself w...hich is equally true about every human being on the face of the globe. He at once resents this as a disparagement and an assertion on my part that people in other parts of the globe are not like that, and are loftily superior to such weaknesses.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
John Robie: And jewelry--you never wear any. Frances Stevens: I don't like cold things touching my skin.... John Robie: Why don't you invent some hot diamonds? Frances Stevens: I'd rather spend my money on more tangible excitement. John Robie: Tell me, what do you get a thrill out of most? Frances Stevens: I'm still looking for that one. He has ... a very good opinion of himself, which can by no means be considered a failing, for if a man does not esteem himself, he would certainly be very silly to expect the esteem of others. And although he is also well convinced of the importance of self-esteem, there is, perhaps, no one who more heartily detests open flattery than he does, and yet, strange to say, it sometimes sounds very pleasant to his ears; it puts him in such good humor with himself, and of course, with all about him, that he seems like quite another being while under its agreeable influence.... Now, I do not mean that he entertains an exalted opinion of his talents or acquirements, but merely that he thinks himself possessed of a good share of common sense, by which is meant a sound practical judgment of what is correct in the common affairs of life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Why are we never quite at ease in the presence of a schoolmaster? Because we are conscious that he is not quite at his ease in our...s. He is awkward, and out of place in the society of his equals. He comes like Gulliver from among his little people, and he cannot fit the stature of his understanding to yours.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hey, cut the crap! The Pope, the Holy Father himself, has this very day blessed Michael Corleone. You think you know better than t...he Pope?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Experienced sportsmen tell us that the best moment to shoot partridges is when they rise out of the corn. It is more difficult to ...hit them in free flight. In like manner the point of departure seems to be the best moment to seize an analytic impression or idea. Once we miss it, it is not much use to pursue it with the devices of conscious reflection. It has already moved too far from the ground of the unconscious, like the partridges a few minutes after their upward flight. And any sportsman will be able to teach us that by this delay we lose much more than the single partridge. In the same way, if we allow the point of departure to slip by unused, whole chains of ideas and thoughts may be lost.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Very few men can speak of Nature, for instance, with any truth. They overstep her modesty, somehow or other, and confer no favor. ...They do not speak a good word for her. Most cry better than they speak, and you can get more nature out of them by pinching than by addressing them. The surliness with which the woodchopper speaks of his woods, handling them as indifferently as his axe, is better than the mealy-mouthed enthusiasm of the lover of nature. Better that the primrose by the river's brim be a yellow primrose, and nothing more, than that it be something less.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The New Testament is an invaluable book, though I confess to having been slightly prejudiced against it in my very early days by t...he church and the Sabbath-school, so that it seemed, before I read it, to be the yellowest book in the catalogue. Yet I early escaped from their meshes. It is hard to get the commentaries out of one's head and taste its true flavor.... It would be a poor story to be prejudiced against the Life of Christ because the book has been edited by Christians. In fact, I love this book rarely, though it is a sort of castle in the air to me, which I am permitted to dream.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is true that genius takes its rise out of the mountains of rectitude; that all beauty and power which men covet are somehow bor...n out of that Alpine district; that any extraordinary degree of beauty in man or woman involves a moral charm.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »