There is something in the eloquence of the pulpit, when it is really eloquence, which is entitled to the highest praise and honour.... The preacher who can touch and affect such an heterogeneous mass of hearers, on subjects limited, and long worn thread-bare in all common hands; who can say any thing new or striking, any thing that rouses the attention, without offending the taste, or wearing out the feelings of his hearers, is a man whom one could not (in his public capacity) honour enough.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
F.R. Leavis's "eat up your broccoli" approach to fiction emphasises this junkfood/wholefood dichotomy. If reading a novel--for the... eighteenth century reader, the most frivolous of diversions--did not, by the middle of the twentieth century, make you a better person in some way, then you might as well flush the offending volume down the toilet, which was by far the best place for the undigested excreta of dubious nourishment.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There are no lower or higher or median moralities. There is only one morality, and it is precisely the one that was given to us du...ring the time of Jesus Christ and that stops me, you and Barantsevich from stealing, offending others, lying etc.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications: with address enough to refuse, without offending; or, by ...your manner of granting, to double the obligation: dexterity enough to conceal a truth, without telling a lie: sagacity enough to read other people's countenances: and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours; a seeming frankness, with a real reserve. These are the rudiments of a politician; the world must be your grammar.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;... It yearns me not if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires. But if it be a sin to covet honor I am the most offending soul alive.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »