This, indeed, has always been the fate of the few that have professed scepticism, that, when they have done what they can to discr...edit their senses, they find themselves, after all, under a necessity of trusting to them. Mr. Hume has been so candid as to acknowledge this; and it is no less true of those who have shewn the same candour; for I never heard that any sceptic runs his head against a post, or stepped into a kennel, because he did not believe his eyes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The universe is so aptly fitted to our organization that the eye wanders and reposes at the same time. On every side there is some...thing to soothe and refresh this sense. Look up at the tree-tops, and see how finely Nature finishes off her work there. See how the pines spire without end higher and higher, and make a graceful fringe to the earth. And who shall count the finer cobwebs that soar and float away from their utmost post, and the myriad insects that dodge between them? Leaves are of more various forms than the alphabets of all languages put together; of the oaks alone there are hardly two alike, and each expresses its own character.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I observed that the vitals of the village were the grocery, the bar-room, the post-office, and the bank; and, as a necessary part ...of the machinery, they kept a bell, a big gun, and a fire-engine, at convenient places; and the houses were so arranged as to make the most of mankind, in lanes and fronting one another, so that every traveller had to run the gauntlet, and every man, woman, and child might get a lick at him.... For the most part I escaped wonderfully from these dangers, either by proceeding at once boldly and without deliberation to the goal, as is recommended to those who run the gauntlet, or by keeping my thoughts on high things, like Orpheus, who, "loudly singing the praises of the gods to his lyre, drowned the voices of the Sirens, and kept out of danger." Sometimes I bolted suddenly, and nobody could tell my whereabouts, for I did not stand much about gracefulness, and never hesitated at a gap in a fence. I was even accustomed to make an irruption into some houses, where I was well entertained, and after learning the kernels and the very last sieveful of news,--what had subsided, the prospects of war and peace, and whether the world was likely to hold together much longer,--I was let out through the rear avenues, and so escaped to the woods again.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"Tall tales" were told of the sociability of the Texans, one even going so far as to picture a member of the Austin colony forcing... a stranger at the point of a gun to visit him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When a man of genius is denied of his great love, he goes mad. His brain, instead of being clear to do his work, is tortured, so h...e begins to think of torture. Torture for those who have tortured him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The great, the rich, the powerful, too often bestow their favours upon their inferiors in the manner they bestow their scraps upon... their dogs, so as neither to oblige man nor dogs. It is no wonder if favours, benefits, and even charities thus bestowed ungraciously, should be as coldly and faintly acknowledged.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Undoubtedly we have not questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believ...e that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would put. He acts it as life, before he apprehends it as truth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I must work, so as not to be a fool, to get on, to become a journalist, because that's what I want!... I can't imagine that I woul...d have to lead the same sort of life as Mummy ... and all the women who do their work and are then forgotten. I must have something besides a husband and children, something that I can devote myself to!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »