If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smoo...th,--certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter- friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My opinion is that we must lend ourselves to others and give ourselves only to ourselves. If my will happened to be prone to mortg...age and attach itself, I would not last: I am too tender, both by nature and by practice.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Modern criticism has concerned itself more with poetry than with fiction for several reasons. First, fiction does not lend itself ...so readily as verse to the close analytical approach. Second, there is no body of critical theory upon the subject of fiction comparable to the poetic theory available to the critic of poetry. Third, the tremendous output of short fiction and novels tends to obscure the total picture and to make the initial problem of selection and evaluation extremely difficult. The result is that fiction, when it has been examined, has been subjected to the same criteria as those applied to verse; sometimes, as in the case of such authors as James, Joyce, or Kafka, with excellent results; at other times, with authors such as Tolstoi, Mann, or Hemingway, the results have either been bad or criticism has limited itself to discussion of the authors' lives, their social background, or their historical importance.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One certainly has a soul; but how it came to allow itself to be enclosed in a body is more than I can imagine. I only know if once... mine gets out, I'll have a bit of a tussle before I let it get in again to that of any other.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All cultural change reduces itself to a difference of categories. All revolutions, whether in the sciences or world history, occur... merely because spirit has changed its categories in order to understand and examine what belongs to it, in order to possess and grasp itself in a truer, deeper, more intimate and unified manner.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I suppose you all realize that as members of the court marshall for the trial of the conspirators in the assassination of our belo...ved president you have on your souls a grave responsibility. The object of this trial is not to determine the guilt or innocence of a handful of rebels but to save this country from further bloodshed. The solemn truth, gentlemen, is that the federal union is on the verge of hysteria. That is why the trial of these conspirators has been placed in your hands rather than in a civil court. Because men of the sword can be hard, and hardness is all that can save this country from riot, mob rule, even resumption of the war itself.... To help you to be hard, first, you must not allow your judgement in decision in this case to be troubled by any trifling technicalities of the law or any pedantic regard for the customary rules of evidence. Second, and most important, you must not allow yourself to be influenced by that obnoxious creation of legal nonsense--reasonable doubt.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have exposed myself and am not ashamed to stand there naked. "Shame" is what we call the monster that attached itself to men whe...n they aspired beyond the animals.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the r...ights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If civilization is to survive, the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored. Shattered trust between nations must be rev...ived. Most important of all the will for peace on the part of peace loving nations must express itself to the end that nations that may be tempted to violate their agreements and the rights of others will desist from such a course. There must be positive endeavors to preserve peace. America hates war, America hopes for peace. Therefore, America actively engages in the search for peace.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When the memory of one's predecessors is buried, the assumption persists that there were none and each generation of women believe...s itself to be faced with the burden of doing everything for the first time. And if no one ever did it before ... why do we think we can succeed now?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »