It must be confessed that the Pilgrims possessed but few of the qualities of the modern pioneer. They were not the ancestors of th...e American backwoodsmen. They did not go at once into the woods with their axes. They were a family and church, and were more anxious to keep together, though it were on the sand, than to colonize a New World.... It is true they were busy at first about their building, and were hindered in that by much foul weather; but a party of emigrants to California or Oregon, with no less work on their hands,--and more hostile Indians,--would do as much exploring the first afternoon, and the Sieur de Champlain would have sought an interview with the savages, and examined the country as far as the Connecticut, and made a map of it, before Billington had climbed his tree.... Nevertheless, the Pilgrims were pioneers, and the ancestors of pioneers, in a far grander enterprise.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You are de cause of de brutality of these poor creeters. For you're de children of those who enslaved dem.... You are ready to hel...p de heathen in foreign lands, but don't care for the heathen right about you. I want you to sign petitions to send to Washington. Dey say there dey will do what de people want. The majority rules. If dey want anything good dey git it. If dey want anything not right dey git it too. You send these petitions, and those men in Congress will have something to spout about.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Children, I talks to God and God talks to me. I goes out and talks to God in de fields and de woods. Dis morning I was walking out..., and I got over de fence. I saw de wheat a holding up its head, looking very big. I goes up and takes holt ob it. You b'lieve it, dere was no wheat dare? I says, God, what is de matter wid dis wheat? and he says to me, "Sojourner, dere is a little weasel in it." Now I hears talkin' about de Constitution and de rights of man. I comes up and I takes hold of dis Constitution. it looks mighty big, and I feels for my rights, but der aint any dare. Den, I says, God, what ails dis Constitution? He says to me, "Sojourner, dere is a little weasel in it." I carry no weapon; the Lord will reserve [i.e., preserve] me without weapons, I feel safe even in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I had crossed de line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but dere was no one to welcome me to de land of freedom. I... was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in de old cabin quarter, wid de ole folks, and my brudders and sisters. But to dis solemn resolution I came; I was free, and dey should be free also; I would make a home for dem in de North, and de Lord helping me, I would bring dem all dere.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In France, and at the most important period of our history, Catherine de' Medici has suffered more from popular error than any oth...er woman, unless it be Brunehaut or Frédégonde; while Marie de' Medici, whose every action was prejudicial to France, has escaped the disgrace that should cover her name.... Catherine de' Medici ... saved the throne of France, she maintained [the] Royal authority under circumstances to which more than one great prince would have succumbed. Face to face with such leaders of the factions and ambitions of the houses of Guise and of Bourbon as the two Cardinals de Lorraine and the two "Balafrès," the two Princes de Condé, Queen Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV, the Connétable de Montmorency, Calvin, the Colignys and Théodore de Bèze, she was forced to put forth the rarest fine qualities, the most essential gifts of statesmanship, under the fire of the Calvinist press.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a social respect necessary in company: you may start your own subject of conversation with modesty, taking care, however,... de ne jamais parler de cordes dans la maison d'un pendu.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Et Saint Apollinaire, raide et ascétique, Vieille usine désaffectée de Dieu, tient encore... Dans ses pierres éecroulantes la forme précise de Byzance.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »