The rush to California ... and the attitude, not merely of merchants, but of philosophers and prophets, so called, in relation to ...it, reflect the greatest disgrace on mankind. That so many are ready to live by luck, and so get the means of commanding the labor of others less lucky, without contributing any value to society! And that is called enterprise! I know of no more startling development of the immorality of trade, and all the common modes of getting a living. The philosophy and poetry and religion of such a mankind are not worth the dust of a puffball. The hog that gets his living by rooting, stirring up the soil so, would be ashamed of such company. If I could command the wealth of all the worlds by lifting my finger, I would not pay such a price for it.... What a comment, what a satire, on our institutions! The conclusion will be, that mankind will hang itself upon a tree.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is now many years that men have resorted to the forest for fuel and the materials of the arts: the New Englander and the New Ho...llander, the Parisian and the Celt, the farmer and Robin Hood, Goody Blake and Harry Gill; in most parts of the world, the prince and the peasant, the scholar and the savage, equally require still a few sticks from the forest to warm them and cook their food. Neither could I do without them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
How much more interesting an event is that man's supper who has just been forth in the snow to hunt, nay, you might say, steal, th...e fuel to cook it with! His bread and meat are sweet.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I had an old axe which nobody claimed, with which by spells in winter days, on the sunny side of the house, I played about the stu...mps which I had got out of my bean-field. As my driver prophesied when I was plowing, they warmed me twice,--once while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire, so that no fuel could give out more heat. As for the axe,... if it was dull, it was at least hung true.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No yard! but unfenced Nature reaching up to your very sills. A young forest growing up under your windows, and wild sumachs and bl...ackberry vines breaking through into your cellar; sturdy pitch pines rubbing and creaking against the shingles for want of room, their roots reaching quite under the house. Instead of a scuttle or a blind blown off in the gale,--a pine tree snapped off or torn up by the roots behind your house for fuel. Instead of no path to the front-yard gate in the Great Snow,--no gate--no front-yard,--and no path to the civilized world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said, and never thought no more about reforming. I ...shoved the whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon fl...oor in summertime because it's cool. If you notice, most folks don't go to church only when they've got to; but a hog is different.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig; Home again, home again, jiggety jig.... To market, to market, to buy a fine hog; Home again, home again, joggety jog.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[Upon being asked if, in the primitive Hunterdon County, New Jersey, mountain town where she lived, there was "any distinction of ...color" among the residents]: No, not a bit, The niggers and whites all live together. The whites are just as good as the niggers, and both are as bad as the devil can make 'em.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »