As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortun...e to be childless.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is the consequence of this institution that not a school- house, a public pew, a bridge, a pound, a mill-dam, hath been set up,... or pulled down, or altered, or bought, or sold, without the whole population of this town having a voice in the affair. A general contentment is the result. And the people truly feel that they are lords of the soil. In every winding road, in every stone fence, in the smokes of the poor-house chimney, in the clock on the church, they read their own power, and consider, at leisure, the wisdom and error of their judgments.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The crystal sphere of thought is as concentrical as the geological structure of the globe. As our soils and rocks lie in strata, c...oncentric strata, so do all men's thinkings run laterally, never vertically.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The early twenties when we drank wood alcohol and every day in every way grew better and better, and there was a first abortive sh...ortening of the skirts, and girls all looked alike in sweater dresses, and people you didn't want to know said "Yes, we have no bananas," and it seemed only a question of a few years before the older people would step aside and let the world be run by those who saw things as they were--and it all seems rosy and romantic to us who were young then, because we will never feel quite so intensely about our surroundings any more.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But the body fails us and the mirror knows, and we no longer insist that the gray hush be carried off its surface by the cloth, fo...r we have run to fat, and wrinkles encircle the eyes and notch the neck where the skin wattles, and the flesh of the arms hangs loose like an overlarge sleeve, veins thicken like ropes and empurple the body as though they had been drawn there by a pen, freckles darken, liver spots appear, the hair ... ah, the hair is exhausted and gray and lusterless, in weary rolls like cornered lint.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am now experiencing one of the "ups" of political life. Congress adjourned on the first after a session of almost seventy-five d...ays, mainly taken up with a contest against me. Five vetoes, a number of special messages, and oral consultations with friends and opponents have been my part in it. At no time ... has the stream of commendation run so full. The great newspapers, and the little, have been equally profuse of flattery. Of course, it will not last. But I think I have the confidence of the country. When the [New York] Tribune can say, "The President has the courtesy of a Chesterfield and the firmness of a Jackson" (!), I must be prepared for the reactionary counterblast.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Kings are much to be pitied, who, misled by weak ministers, and deceived by wicked favourites, run into political errors, which in...volve their families in ruin: and it might prove some solace to his present majesty, when, fallen from the head of the greatest empire the world has seen, he shall again exhibit in the political system of Europe the original character of a petty king of Britain, could he impute his fall to error alone. Error is to be pitied and pardoned: it is the weakness of human nature. But vice is a foul blemish, not pardonable in any character.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Despite the great differences in the objectives of the two men, there are important similarities between them. The most obvious on...es are in the area of personality. Both presidents had a quick smile and a pleasant air about them. People liked Roosevelt, as they did Reagan, almost without regard for his policies.... Both men led charmed political lives, in which they were praised for everything people liked, while the blame for all problems fell on others. FDR was a "Teflon president" long before Teflon was invented. After Roosevelt had won re-election to a second term, he had the temerity to point out that "one-third of the nation" was "ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." And in his re-election campaign in 1984, Reagan continued to run against the "gov-mint," as he disdainfully pronounced it, even after having been in charge of it for nearly four years. And Franklin Roosevelt was the first "media president," clearly deserving the title "Great Communicator." He charmed radio listeners much as Reagan did his television audiences.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
She cried and prayed, but what good are prayers and orations when comes this last hour that the Book talks about: when the moon go...es out and the stars go out and the wax of the clouds masks the sun. When the courageous Negro says, "I am tired," and the Negress stops grinding the corn because she is tired. When there is a bird in the woods laughing like a rusty rattle and those who sing are sitting in a circle without a word and without a sound and those who cry run around Main Street and cry, "Help me, help me! because today we bury our man and he is going to the graveyard, to his tomb, to dust."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And we fairies, that do run By the triple Hecate's team... From the presence of the sun, Following darkness like a dream, Now are frolic. Not a mouse Shall disturb this hallowed house.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »