They are the guiding oracles which man has found out for himself in that great business of ours, of learning how to be, to do, to ...do without, and to depart.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
They act as if they supposed that to be very sanguine about the general improvement of mankind is a virtue that relieves them from... taking trouble about any improvement in particular.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have got enough of the old masters! Brown says he has "shook" them, and I think I will shake them, too. You wander through a mil...e of picture galleries and stare stupidly at ghastly old nightmares done in lampblack and lightning, and listen to the ecstatic encomiums of the guides, and try to get up some enthusiasm, but it won't come.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The houses are from five to seven feet high, and all built upon one arbitrary plan--the ungraceful form of a dry-goods box. The si...des are daubed with a smooth white plaster, and tastefully frescoed aloft and alow with disks of camel-dung placed there to dry. This gives the edifice the romantic appearance of having been riddled with cannon-balls, and imparts to it a very pleasing effect. When the artist has arranged his materials with an eye to just proportion--the small and the large flakes in alternate rows, and separated by carefully-considered intervals--I know of nothing more cheerful to look upon than a spirited Syrian fresco. Nothing in this world has such a charm for me as to stand and gaze for hours and hours upon the inspired works of these old masters.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If there is one thing that is really cheerful in the world, it is cheerfulness. I have noticed it often. And I have noticed that w...hen a man is right down cheerful, he is seldom unhappy for the time being. Such is the nature of man.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Wittgenstein imagined that the philosopher was like a therapist whose task was to put problems finally to rest, and to cure us of ...being bewitched by them. So we are told to stop, to shut off lines of inquiry, not to find things puzzling nor to seek explanations. This is intellectual suicide.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »