History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in.... I read it a little as a duty; but it tells me nothing that does not ei...ther vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There are two kinds of timidity--timidity of mind, and timidity of the nerves; physical timidity, and moral timidity. Each is inde...pendent of the other. The body may be frightened and quake while the mind remains calm and bold, and vice versë. This is the key to many eccentricities of conduct. When both kinds meet in the same man he will be good for nothing all his life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Deserve a great deal, and you shall have a great deal; deserve little, and you shall have but a little; and be good for nothing at... all, and I assure you, you shall have nothing at all.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Two more contrabands yesterday. These runaways are bright fellows. As a body they are superior to the average of the uneducated wh...ite population of this State. More intelligent, I feel confident. What a good-for-nothing people the mass of these western Virginians are! Unenterprising, lazy, narrow, listless, and ignorant. Careless of consequences to the country if their own lives and property are safe. Slavery leaves one class, the wealthy, with leisure for cultivation. They are usually intelligent, well-bred, brave, and high-spirited. The rest are serfs.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
...Christmas is a season of such infinite labour, as well as expense in the shopping and present-making line, that almost every wo...man I know is good for nothing in purse and person for a month afterwards, done up physically, and broken down financially.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Nobody is so heartily despised as a pusillanimous, lazy, good-for-nothing, land-lubber; a sailor has no bowels of compassion for h...im.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Thus, statesmanlike, I'll saucily impose, And safe from action, valiantly advise;... Sheltered in impotence, urge you to blows, And being good for nothing else, be wise.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
O! never say that I was false of heart, Though absence seemed my flame to qualify.... As easy might I from myself depart As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie: That is my home of love; if I have ranged, Like him that travels, I return again, Just to the time, not with the time exchanged, So that myself bring water for my stain. Never believe, though in my nature reigned All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood, That it could so preposterously be stained, To leave for nothing all thy sum of good; For nothing this wide universe I call, Save thou, my rose; in it thou art my all.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
He took as his motto: misfortune is good for something. How many good people have been able to say: misfortune is good for nothing...!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »