Probability but no truth, facility but no freedom--it is owing to these two fruits that the tree of knowledge cannot be confused w...ith the tree of life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"Miss Dudley ... gives one the idea of a lightly-sparred yacht in mid- ocean; unexpected; you ask yourself what the devil she is d...oing there. She sails gaily along, though there is no land in sight and plenty of rough weather coming. She never read a book, I believe, in her life. She tries to paint, but she is only a second-rate amateur and will never be any thing more, though she has done one or two things which I give you my word I would like to have done myself. She picks up all she knows without an effort and knows nothing well, yet she seems to understand whatever is said. Her mind is as irregular as her face, and both have the same peculiarity. I notice that the lines of her eyebrows, nose and mouth all end with a slight upward curve like a yacht's sails, which gives a kind of hopefulness and self-confidence to her expression. Mind and face have the same curves."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday ...purposes amounts to certainty; the new therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This is just a footnote, though a microcosmic one perhaps, to the greater curve Of the elaboration; it asks no place in it, o...nly insertion hors-texte as the invisible notion of how that day grew From planisphere to heaven, and what part in it all the "I" had, the insatiable researcher of learned trivia, bookworm ...LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am looking over Self Control again, & my opinion is confirmed of its being an excellently-meant, elegantly-written... Work, without anything of Nature or Probability in it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
...I remembered the rose bush that had reached a thorny branch out through the ragged fence, and caught my dress, detaining me whe...n I would have passed on. And again the symbolism of it all came over me. These memories and visions of the poor--they were the clutch of the thorns. Social workers have all felt it. It holds them to their work, because the thorns curve backward, and one cannot pull away.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In philosophical inquiry, the human spirit, imitating the movement of the stars, must follow a curve which brings it back to its p...oint of departure. To conclude is to close a circle.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have been too long acquainted with human nature to have great regard for human testimony; and a very great degree of probability..., supported by various concurrent circumstances, conspiring in one point, will have much greater weight with me, than human testimony upon oath, or even upon honour; both of which I have frequently seen considerably warped by private views.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Women generally should be taught that the rough life men must needs lead, in order to be healthy, useful and manly men, would prec...lude the possibility of a great degree of physical perfection, especially in color. It is not a bad reflection to know that in all probability the human animal has endowments enough without aspiring to be the beauty of all creation as well as the ruler.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »