Write to the point: say immediately what you want to say most, even if it doesn't "come first." There are three reasons for doing ...this. First, you will then have said it, even if nothing else gets said. Second, your readers will then have read it, even if they read no more. Third, having said it, you are likely to have to say something more, because you will have to explain and justify what you chose to say.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is natural, now, to think of there being connected with a sign (name, combination of words, letter) besides that to which the s...ign refers, which may be called the reference of the sign, also what I should like to call the sense of the sign, wherein the mode of presentation is contained. In our example, accordingly, [an example in which lines a, b, and c all intersect at a single point] the reference of the expressions 'the point of intersection of a and b' and 'the point of intersection of b and c' would be the same, but not their senses. The reference of 'evening star' would be the same as that of 'morning star,' but not the sense.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And William had dudgeon for the sightless beadle Who worshipped a God like a grandmother on ice-skates,... For William saw two angels on the point of a needle As nobody since except W. B. Yeats.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Henry B. Adams was the first in an infinite series to discover and admit to himself that he really did not care whether truth was,... or was not, true. He did not even care that it should be proved true, unless the process were new and amusing. He was a Darwinian for fun.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Paper is soft and ink is fluid; it might be better if some pages of this chronicle could be written on chips of granite at the poi...nt of steel.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It used to be said that, socially speaking, Philadelphia asked who a person is, New York how much is he worth, and Boston what doe...s he know. Nationally it has now become generally recognized that Boston Society has long cared even more than Philadelphia about the first point and has refined the asking of who a person is to the point of demanding to know who he was. Philadelphia asks about a man's parents; Boston wants to know about his grandparents.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
...there is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn. I'm not certain what the difference is, but I do know that if... you butt your head against a stone wall long enough, at some point you realize the wall is stone and that your head is flesh and blood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Lonesome? God, no! From the day the kids are born, if it's not one thing, it's another. After all those years of being responsible... for them, you finally get to the point where you want to scream: "Fall out of the nest already, you guys, will you? It's time."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The custard is setting; meanwhile I not only have my own history to worry about... But am forced to fret over insufficient details related to large Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »