You cannot have one well-bred man without a whole society of such. They keep each other up to any high point. Especially women;Mit... requires a great many cultivated women,--saloons of bright, elegant, reading women, accustomed to ease and refinement, to spectacles, pictures, sculpture, poetry, and to elegant society, in order that you have one Madame de Staël.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I can't quite define my aversion to asking questions of strangers. From snatches of family battles which I have heard drifting up ...from railway stations and street corners, I gather that there are a great many men who share my dislike for it, as well as an equal number of women who ... believe it to be the solution to most of this world's problems.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At last, on Monday the 16th of May, when I was sitting in Mr. Davies's back-parlour, after having drunk tea with him and Mrs. Davi...es, Johnson unexpectedly came into the shop; and Mr. Davies having perceived him through the glass-door in the room in which we were sitting, advancing towards us,--he announced his aweful approach to me, somewhat in the manner of an actor in the part of Horatio, when he addresses Hamlet on the appearance of his father's ghost, "Look, my Lord, it comes" ... Mr. Davies mentioned my name, and respectfully introduced me to him. I was much agitated; and recollecting his prejudice against the Scotch, of which I had heard much, I said to Davies, "Don't tell where I come from."M"From Scotland," cried Davies roguishly. "Mr. Johnson, (said I) I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it." I am willing to flatter myself that I meant this as light pleasantry to sooth and conciliate him, and not as an humiliating abasement at the expense of my country.... [W]ith that quickness of wit for which he was so remarkable, he seized the expression "come from Scotland," which I used in the sense of being of that country, and, as if I had said that I had come away from it, or left it, retorted, "That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
He who receives a great many letters demanding answer, sees himself as if engaged in a hopeless struggle of one man against the re...st of the world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A great many will find fault in the resolution that the negro shall be free and equal, because our equal not every human being can... be; but free every human being has a right to be. He can only be equal in his rights.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am not of the opinion generally entertained in this country [England], that man lives by Greek and Latin alone; that is, by know...ing a great many words of two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and which are of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge, in my opinion, consists of modern languages, history, and geography; some Latin may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with custom, and for closet amusement.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I said, "That was a very brave thing to do." He said, "Och, it was just the training." I have a feeling that, in the end, probably... that is the answer to a great many things.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... it is a great mistake to confuse conventionality with simplicity ... it takes a good deal of intelligence and a great many inh...ibitions to follow a social code.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »