It is the fixed that horrifies us, the fixed that assails us with the tremendous force of mindlessness. The fixed is a Mason jar, ...and we can't beat it open. ...The fixed is a world without fire--dead flint, dead tinder, and nowhere a spark. It is motion without direction, force without power, the aimless procession of caterpillars round the rim of a vase, and I hate it because at any moment I myself might step to that charmed and glistening thread.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The blacksmith dropped his hammer, the carpenter his plane, the mason his trowel, the farmer his sickle, the baker his loaf, and t...he tapster his bottle. All were off for the mines, some on horses, some on carts, and some on crutches, and one went in a litter.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I know, it must have been my imagination, but it makes me realize how desperately alone the Earth is. Hanging in space like a spec...k of food floating in the ocean. Sooner or later to be swallowed up by some creature floating by.... Time will tell, Dr. Mason. We can only wait and wonder. Wonder how, wonder when.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
How feeble is all language to describe the horrors we inflict upon these wretches, whom we mason up in the cells of our prisons, a...nd condemn to perpetual solitude in the very heart of our population.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This sense of otherness is the single most pernicious force in American discourse. Its not-like-us ethos makes so much bigotry pos...sible: racism, sexism, homophobia. It divides the country as surely as the Mason-Dixon line once did.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may ventur...e to call himself an architect.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and ho...spitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and... strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I asked you to play. If you can't think of anything better, play a chromatic five finger exercise. But spare me your suburban shop...girl trash.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You can't stand up against me. You haven't got the strength. You'll do as I say. I demand that you give up this man. I demand that... you send him away.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »