And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground wh...ere only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Any owner of cats will know of what I speak. Cats come at dawn to sit on your bed. They may not nip your nose or inhale your breat...h or make a sound. They simply sit there and stare at you until you open one eyelid and spy them there about to drop dead for need of feeding. So it is with ideas. They come silently in the hour of trying to wake up and remember my name. The notions and fancies sit on the edge of my wits, whisper in my ears and then, if I don't rouse, give more than cats give: a good knock in the head, which gets me out and down to my typewriter before the ideas flee or die or both. In any event, I make the ideas come to me. I do not go to them. I provoke their patience by pretending disregard. This infuriates the latent creature until it is almost raving to be born and once born, nourished.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Men have a low threshold for distraction. They are delicate. They are made nervous by having to do more than one thing at a time. ...They feel frazzled and angry if they have to answer three phone calls, and have a hard time settling back to work after the trauma. Women, on the other hand, develop the skill of doing many things at once. They tuck the phone in between their shoulders and their ears, hold a baby on one hip, stir a pot on the stove, all the while thinking about an idea for a story. They don't think it's unfair to have to do this. They think it's normal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And I will wear what dresses I choose! And I will dance, and what's to lose!... I'm free of you, you little prick, and I'm the one can make it stick.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual.... There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There can only be one Commander-in-Chief. In these times, crises cannot be managed and wars cannot be waged by committee. To the e...ars of the world, the President speaks for the nation. While he is of course ultimately accountable to Congress, the courts, and the people, he and his emissaries must not be handicapped in advance in their relations with foreign governments as has sometimes happened in the past.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The alcoholic trance is not just a haze, as though the eyes were also unshaven. It is not a mere buzzing in the ears, a dizziness ...or disturbance of balance. One arrives in the garden again, at nursery time, when the gentle animals are fed and in all the world there are only toys.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Entrance and exit wounds are silvered clean, The track aches only when the rain reminds.... The one-legged man forgets his leg of wood. The one-armed man his jointed wooden arm. The blinded man sees with his ears and hands As much or more than once with both his eyes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
John Robie: And jewelry--you never wear any. Frances Stevens: I don't like cold things touching my skin.... John Robie: Why don't you invent some hot diamonds? Frances Stevens: I'd rather spend my money on more tangible excitement. John Robie: Tell me, what do you get a thrill out of most? Frances Stevens: I'm still looking for that one. He has ... a very good opinion of himself, which can by no means be considered a failing, for if a man does not esteem himself, he would certainly be very silly to expect the esteem of others. And although he is also well convinced of the importance of self-esteem, there is, perhaps, no one who more heartily detests open flattery than he does, and yet, strange to say, it sometimes sounds very pleasant to his ears; it puts him in such good humor with himself, and of course, with all about him, that he seems like quite another being while under its agreeable influence.... Now, I do not mean that he entertains an exalted opinion of his talents or acquirements, but merely that he thinks himself possessed of a good share of common sense, by which is meant a sound practical judgment of what is correct in the common affairs of life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »