[James G. Blaine's] devotion to the public interests, his marked ability, and his exalted patriotism have won for him the gratitud...e and affection of his countrymen and the admiration of the world. In the varied pursuits of legislation, diplomacy, and literature his genius has added new luster to American citizenship.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Warren G. Harding invented the word "normalcy," And the lesser-known "bloviate," meaning, one imagines,... To spout, to spew aimless verbiage.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact... that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A law explains a set of observations; a theory explains a set of laws. The quintessential illustration of this jump in level is th...e way in which Newton's theory of mechanics explained Kepler's law of planetary motion. Basically, a law applies to observed phenomena in one domain (e.g., planetary bodies and their movements), while a theory is intended to unify phenomena in many domains. Thus, Newton's theory of mechanics explained not only Kepler's laws, but also Galileo's findings about the motion of balls rolling down an inclined plane, as well as the pattern of oceanic tides. Unlike laws, theories often postulate unobservable objects as part of their explanatory mechanism. So, for instance, Freud's theory of mind relies upon the unobservable ego, superego, and id, and in modern physics we have theories of elementary particles that postulate various types of quarks, all of which have yet to be observed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I find it profoundly symbolic that I am appearing before a committee of fifteen men who will report to a legislative body of one h...undred men because of a decision handed down by a court comprised of nine men--on an issue that affects millions of women.... I have the feeling that if men could get pregnant, we wouldn't be struggling for this legislation. If men could get pregnant, maternity benefits would be as sacrosanct as the G.I. Bill.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
How the devil am I to prove to my counsel that I don't know my murderous impulses through C.G. Jung, jealousy through Marcel Prous...t, Spain through Hemingway ... It's true, you need never have read these authorities, you can absorb them through your friends, who also live all their experiences second-hand. What an age!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Commercial to the core, Elvis was the kind of singer dear to the heart of the music business. For him to sing a song was to sell a... song. His G clef was a dollar sign.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Mozart starved, but you allow Thalberg and Liszt make tons of gold: Of course, you may think that someone immortal cannot die of h...unger.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The Golden Rule furnishes the true solution of many difficult problems in government and society. Bishop [Atticus G.] Haygood, an ...ex-slaveholder and an ex-Confederate soldier, has given us the best book on the negro question. The title of his work ... tells the whole story: "Our Brother in Black." When reformers, religious teachers, and statesmen, and the general public lift themselves up to the height of the argument contained in that pithy title, there will no longer be a negro problem, nor a problem of capital and labor, nor any question as to the treatment of the criminal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »