That which we kept off, and toward which the waves were driving, was as dreary and harborless a shore as you can conceive. For hal...f a dozen rods in width it was a perfect maze of submerged trees, all dead and bare and bleaching, some standing half their original height, others prostrate, and criss-across, above or beneath the surface, and mingled with them were loose trees and limbs and stumps, beating about. Imagine the wharves of the largest city in the world, decayed, and the earth and planking washed away, leaving the spiles standing in loose order, but often of twice the ordinary height, and mingled with and beating against them the wreck of ten thousand navies, all their spars and timbers, while there rises from the water's edge the densest and grimmest wilderness, ready to supply more material when the former fails, and you may get a faint idea of that coast. We could not have landed if we would.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Prometheus is action. Hamlet is hesitation. In Prometheus the obstacle is exterior; in Hamlet it is interior. In Prometheus the wi...ll is securely nailed down by nails of brass and cannot get loose; besides, it has by its side two watchers--Force and Power. In Hamlet the will is more tied down yet; it is bound by previous meditation--the endless chain of the undecided. Try to get out of yourself if you can! What a Gordian knot is our reverie. Slavery from within, that is slavery indeed. Scale this enclosure, "to dream!" escape, if you can, from this prison, "to love!" The only dungeon is that which walls conscience in. Prometheus, in order to be free, has but a bronze collar to break and a god to conquer; Hamlet must break and conquer himself. Prometheus can raise himself upright, if he only lifts a mountain; to raise himself up, Hamlet must lift his own thoughts. If Prometheus plucks the vulture from his breast, all is said; Hamlet must tear Hamlet from his breast. Prometheus and Hamlet are two naked livers; from one runs blood, from the other doubt.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Materialism means simply the denial that the moral order is eternal, and the cutting off of ultimate hopes; spiritualism means the... affirmation of an eternal moral order and the letting loose of hope.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Freudian psychoanalytical theory is a mythology that answers pretty well to Levi-Strauss's descriptions. It brings some kind of or...der into incoherence; it, too, hangs together, makes sense, leaves no loose ends, and is never (but never) at a loss for explanation. In a state of bewilderment it may therefore bring comfort and relief.... give its subject a new and deeper understanding of his own condition and of the nature of his relationship to his fellow men. A mythical structure will be built up around him which makes sense and is believable-in, regardless of whether or not it is true.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
By and large the literature of a democracy will never exhibit the order, regularity, skill, and art characteristic of aristocratic... literature; formal qualities will be neglected or actually despised. The style will often be strange, incorrect, overburdened, and loose, and almost always strong and bold. Writers will be more anxious to work quickly than to perfect details. Short works will be commoner than long books, wit than erudition, imagination than depth. There will be a rude and untutored vigor of thought with great variety and singular fecundity. Authors will strive to astonish more than to please, and to stir passions rather than to charm taste.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... any men who would give up the law-making power to women in order to remedy existing evils, would surely be those most ready to... enact the needful laws themselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The General Order is always to manoeuver in a body and on the attack; to maintain strict but not pettifogging discipline; to keep ...the troops constantly at the ready; to employ the utmost vigilance on sentry go; to use the bayonet on every possible occasion; and to follow up the enemy remorselessly until he is utterly destroyed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail.... Fluenc...y, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we ca...n hope for is to put some order into ourselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Today, San Francisco has experienced a double tragedy of incredible proportions. As acting mayor, I order an immediate state of mo...urning in our city. The city and county of San Francisco must and will pull itself together at this time. We will carry on as best as we possibly can.... I think we all have to share the same sense of shame and the same sense of outrage.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »