Are we aware of our obligations to a mob? It is the mob that labour in your fields and serve in your houses--that man your navy, a...nd recruit your army--that have enabled you to defy the world, and can also defy you when neglect and calamity have driven them to despair. You may call the people a mob; but do not forget that a mob too often speaks the sentiments of the people.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no views worth hearing on things in g...eneral. The farmer philosophizes in terms of crops, soils, markets, and implements, the mechanic generalizes his experiences of wood and iron, the seaman reaches similar conclusions by his own special road; and if the scholar keeps pace with these it must be by an equally virile productivity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Heads of state are notoriously ill prepared for their mature careers; think of Adolf Hitler (landscape painter), Ho Chi Minh (seam...an), and our own Ronald Reagan.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... the more we recruit from immigrants who bring no personal traditions with them, the more America is going to ignore the things... of the spirit. No one whose consuming desire is either for food or for motor-cars is going to care about culture, or even know what it is.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I've never seen a better seaman, but as a man he's a snake. He doesn't punish for discipline, he likes to see men crawl. Sometimes... I'd like to push his poison down his own throat.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Both terrorist groups and cults tend to become countercultures with their own codes of behavior into which each new recruit is ind...octrinated. The activities of both tend to be on or beyond the fringes of socially acceptable behavior. It has long been established in the study of cults that any deviant group will attract individuals who have a grievance or feeling of deprivation, provided the group offers some explanation or remedy. We have seen that the same is true of terrorist groups. Populations with similar or shared grievances or feelings of deprivation constitute a pool of possible converts. In the case of cults, it was further found that social networks--similar ethnic, social, educational, or other relationships existing before the recruitment takes place--are highly influential in determining who among the many in the pool are most likely to be among the few who are recruited. Despite the greater heterogeneity of personality types among terrorists in general, there appears to be a remarkable homogeneity in terms of social networks within specific groups.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Of the quaking recruit, three pitched battles make a grim grenadier; and he who shrank from the muzzle of a cannon, is now ready t...o yield his mustache for a sponge.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
From what I have said of the natives of New Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon earth; but in real...ity they are far happier than we Europeans, being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous, but with the necessary conveniences so much sought after in Europe; they are happy in not knowing the use of them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We say justly that the weak person is flat, for, like all flat substances, he does not stand in the direction of his strength, tha...t is, on his edge, but affords a convenient surface to put upon. He slides all the way through life.... But the brave man is a perfect sphere, which cannot fall on its flat side and is equally strong every way.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The brave man is the elder son of creation who has stepped buoyantly into his inheritance, while the coward, who is the younger, w...aiteth patiently for his decease. He rides as wide of this earth's gravity as a star, and by yielding incessantly to all impulses of the soul is drawn upward and becomes a fixed star. His bravery consists not so much in resolute action as healthy and assured rest. Its palmy state is a staying at home, compelling alliance in all directions. So stands his life to heaven as some fair sunlit tree against the western horizon, and by sunrise is planted on some eastern hill to glisten in the first rays of the dawn.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »