It sometimes strikes me that the whole of science is a piece of impudence; that nature can afford to ignore our impertinent interf...erence. If our monkey mischief should ever reach the point of blowing up the earth by decomposing an atom, and even annihilated the sun himself, I cannot really suppose that the universe would turn a hair.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
His eye had become minutely exact as to the book and its position. Then he resolved that he would not look at the book again, woul...d not turn a glance on it unless it might be when he had made up his mind to reveal its contents.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue.... Moreover this activity ...must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I care not for the theoretical symmetry and impregnable logic of your moral code, I care not for the hoary respectability and trad...itional mysticisms of your theological institutions, I care not for the beauty and solemnity of your rituals and religious ceremonies, I care not even for the reasonableness and unimpeachable fairness of your social ethics,--if it does not turn out better, nobler, truer, men and women,--if it does not add to the world's stock of valuable souls,--if it does not give us a sounder, healthier, more reliable product from this great factory of men--I will have none of it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Who says that fictions only and false hair Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?... Is all good structure in a winding stair? May no lines pass, except they do their duty Not to a true, but painted chair?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Life is not precious, a thing to be cherished. The soul and the mind are the instruments God gives us for our use and half of us d...on't begin to use them. We put Life and Health on two little pedestals and spend most of our time performing acts of devotion before them. Instead of using them as a carpenter his tools, as a helmsman the rudder, to hammer or steer our way to victory, we turn ourselves into Vestal Virgins with nothing on the face of the earth to do but to feed the feeble flames of our comfort. Life is no craven thing, lurking coward-like in a corner. It is big, broad, splendid in opportunity. It is to be used, not cherished. It is to be spent, not saved.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Black brows they say Become some women best, so that there be not... Too much hair there, but in a semicircle, Or a half-moon made with a pen.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There were several canal-boats ... passing through the locks, for which we waited. In the forward part of one stood a brawny New H...ampshire man, leaning on his pole, bareheaded and in shirt and trousers only, a rude Apollo of a man, coming down from "that vast uplandish country" to the main; of nameless age, with flaxen hair and vigorous, weather-bleached countenance, in whose wrinkles the sun still lodged, as little touched by the heats and frosts and withering cares of life as a maple of the mountain; an undressed, unkempt, uncivil man, with whom we parlayed awhile, and parted not without a sincere interest in one another. His humanity was genuine and instinctive, and his rudeness only a manner. He inquired, just as we were passing out of earshot, if we had killed anything, and we shouted after him that we had shot a buoy, and could see him for a long while scratching his head in vain to know if he had heard aright.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When the Day of Judgement dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards--their crowns, th...eir laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble--the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when he sees us coming with our books under our arms, "Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Bid a strong ghost stand at the head That my Michael may sleep sound,... Nor cry, not turn in the bed Till his morning meal come round; And may departing twilight keep All dread afar till morning's back....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »