Of all things in life, Mrs. Lee held this kind of court-service in contempt, for she was something more than republican--a little ...communistic at heart, and her only serious complaint of the President and his wife was that they undertook to have a court and to ape monarchy. She had no notion of admitting social superiority in any one, President or Prince, and to be suddenly converted into a lady-in-waiting to a small German Grand-Duchess, was a terrible blow.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The only serious rival to Pepys is Boswell, but Boswell is a snail without a shell. He trails through life unhoused and exclamator...y, whereas Pepys is housed and sotto voce. Boswell is confessional before anything else, whereas, though he too tells all, Pepys is not; he records for the sensual pleasure of record. Boswell adores his damned soul to the point of tears and is in shameless, ramshackle pursuit of father-figures who will offer salvation. Unlike Pepys, he has above all a conceit of his own peculiar genius. Pepys has no notion of genius. Where Pepys is an eager careerist, struck by the wonder of it, Boswell has no career; he has only a carousel, and it is odd that the careerist has a more genuine sense of pleasure than the Calvinist libertine.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In the Second World War approximately the same European allies fought approximately the same adversaries as in the first. Though t...he tide of the battle swung more violently to and fro, the battle ended in much the same way--with the defeat of Germany. The link between the two wars went deeper. Germany fought specifically in the second war to reverse the verdict of the first and to destroy the settlement which followed it. Her opponents fought, though less consciously, to defend that settlement; and this they achieved--to their own surprise. There was much utopian projecting while the second war was on; but at the end virtually every frontier of Europe and the Near East was restored unchanged, with the exception--admittedly a large exception--of Poland and the Baltic. Leaving out this area of north-eastern Europe, the only serious change on the map between the English Channel and the Indian Ocean was the transference of Istria from Italy to Yugoslavia. The first war destroyed old Empires and brought new states into existence. The second war created no new states and destroyed only Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it ... try to fake three laughs in an hour--ha ha ha ha ha--they'll t...ake you away, man. You can't.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At the Denver House, a hastily erected log structure roofed and partitioned with canvas, described by Horace Greeley in 1859 as "T...he Astor House of the Gold Fields," orchestra leader Jones and his spirited men were interrupted by sporadic but not unforeseen bursts of gunfire that sent them diving for shelter behind a low iron-plated enclosure. Before the smoke had fairly cleared away, they were up again desperately playing and singing: Ha, boys, ho! Ain't you glad you're out of the wilderness, Ain't you glad you're out of the wilderness? Ha, boys, ho!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When the painted birds laugh in the shade, When our table with cherries and nuts is spread:... Come live, and be merry, and join with me To sing the sweet chorus of 'Ha, ha, he!'LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Being a funny person does an awful lot of things to you. You feel that you mustn't get serious with people. They don't expect it f...rom you, and they don't want to see it. You're not entitled to be serious, you're a clown, and they only want you to make them laugh.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Friendship is not so simple. It is hard to get and takes a long time, but when one ha it one cannot get rid of it, one has to face... it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humours and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; ...but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Women are only children of a larger growth.... A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humours and flatters them, ...as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »