I am a Wasp only in the genetic sense; the P does not quite apply. As an Episcopalian I am technically an Anglican Catholic, meani...ng that I have a real feel for theological dottiness untainted by deeper questions of religious belief. I have no religious beliefs to speak of, but I stand four-square with the Highs against the Lows on Latin and incense, and I will go to bat for transubstantiation even though it means nothing to me one way or the other.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Lucy: I know I'll enjoy Oklahoma City. Jerry: But, of course. And if it should get dull, you can always go to Tulsa for the w...eekend.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncr...eated conscience of my race.... Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I did not go to Boston, for with regard to that place I sympathize with one of my neighbors, an old man, who has not been there si...nce the last war, when he was compelled to go. No, I have a real genius for staying at home.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Amen. So be it. Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of ...my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have never believed that war settled anything satisfactorily, but I am not entirely sure that some times there are certain situa...tions in the world such as we have in actuality when a country is worse off when it does not go to war for its principles than if it went to war.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
With a single companion, I soon found my way to the church of Notre Dame.... The Catholic are the only churches which I have seen ...worth remembering, which are not almost wholly profane. I do not speak only of the rich and splendid like this, but of the humblest of them as well. Coming from the hurrahing mob and the rattling carriages, we pushed aside the listed door of this church, and found ourselves instantly in an atmosphere which might be sacred to thought and religion, if one had any. There sat one or two women who had stolen a moment from the concerns of the day, as they were passing; but, if there had been fifty people there, it would still have been the most solitary place imaginable. They did not look up at us, nor did one regard another.... I was impressed by the quiet, religious atmosphere of the place. It was a great cave in the midst of a city; and what were the altars and the tinsel but the sparkling stalactites, into which you entered in a moment, and where the still atmosphere and the sombre light disposed to serious and profitable thought? Such a cave at hand, which you can enter any day, is worth a thousand of our churches which are open only Sundays, hardly long enough for an airing, and then filled with a bustling congregation,--a church where the priest is the least part, where you do your own preaching, where the universe preaches to you and can be heard. I am not sure but this Catholic religion would be an admirable one if the priest were quite omitted. I think that I might go to church myself some Monday, if I lived in a city where there was such a one to go to.... As for the Protestant churches, here or elsewhere, they did not interest me, for it is only as caves that churches interest me at all, and in that respect they were inferior.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.... Commonly, if men... want anything of me, it is only to know how many acres I make of their land,--since I am a surveyor,--or, at most, what trivial news I have burdened myself with. They never will go to law for my meat; they prefer the shell.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »