Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably l...ying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We might as easily reprove the east wind, or the frost, as a political party, whose members, for the most part, could give no acco...unt of their position, but stand for the defence of those interests in which they find themselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hereabouts our Indian told us at length the story of their contention with the priest respecting schools. He thought a great deal ...of education and had recommended it to his tribe. His argument in its favor was, that if you had been to college and learnt to calculate, you could "keep 'um property,--no other way." He said that his boy was the best scholar in the school at Oldtown, to which he went with whites. He himself is a Protestant, and goes to church regularly at Oldtown. According to his account, a good many of his tribe are Protestants, and many of the Catholics also are in favor of schools. Some years ago they had a schoolmaster, a Protestant, whom they liked very well. The priest came and said that they must send him away, and finally he had such influence, telling them that they would go to the bad place at last if they retained him, that they sent him away. The school party, though numerous, were about giving up. Bishop Fenwick came from Boston and used his influence against them. But our Indian told his side that they must not give up, must hold on, they were the strongest. If they gave up, then they would have no party. But they answered that it was "no use, priest too strong, we'd better give up." At length he persuaded them to make a stand. The priest was going for a sign to cut down the liberty-pole. So Polis and his party had a secret meeting about it; he got ready fifteen or twenty stout young men, "stript 'um naked, and painted 'um like old times," and told them that when the priest and his party went to cut down the liberty-pole, they were to rush up, take hold of it, and prevent them, and he assured them that there would be no war, only noise,--"no war where priest is." He kept his men concealed in a house near by, and when the priest's party were about to cut down the liberty-pole, the fall of which would have been a death-blow to the school party, he gave a signal, and his young men rushed out and seized the pole. There was a great uproar, and they were about coming to blows, but the priest interfered, saying, "No war, no war," and so the pole stands, and the school goes on still. We thought that it showed a good deal of tact in him, to seize the occasion and take his stand on it; proving how well he understood those with whom he had to deal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Only he who has had the good fortune to read them in the nick of time, in the most perceptive and recipient season of life, can gi...ve any adequate account of them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
'Tis good to give a stranger a meal or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give c...ourage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I still feel just as I told you, that I shall come safely out of this war. I felt so the other day when danger was near. I certain...ly enjoyed the excitement of fighting our way out of Giles to the Narrows as much as any excitement I ever experienced. I had a good deal of anxiety the first hour or two on account of my command, but not a particle on my own account. After that, and after I saw that we were getting on well, it was really jolly. We all joked and laughed and cheered constantly.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You use the phrase "brutal Rebels." Don't be cheated in that way. There are enough "brutal Rebels" no doubt, but we have brutal of...ficers and men too. I have had men brutally treated by our own officers on this raid [to Lynchburg, Va.]. And there are plenty of humane Rebels. I have seen a good deal of it on this trip. War is a cruel business and there is brutality in it on all sides, but it is very idle to get up anxiety on account of any supposed peculiar cruelty on the part of Rebels. Keepers of prisons in Cincinnati, as well as in Danville, are hard-hearted and cruel.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If anyone proposes to believe, i.e., imagines himself to believe, because many good and upright people living here on the hill hav...e believed, i.e., have said that they believed ... then he is a fool, and it is essentially indifferent whether he believes on account of his own and perhaps a widely held opinion about what good and upright people believe, or believes a Münchhausen.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hand...s of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »