He was begotten in the galley and born under a gun. Every hair was a rope yarn, every finger a fish-hook, every tooth a marline-sp...ike, and his blood right good Stockholm tar.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Wit is a lean creature with sharp inquiring nose, whereas humor has a kindly eye and a comfortable girth. Wit, if it be necessary,... uses malice to score a point--like a cat it is quick to jump--but humor keeps the peace in an easy chair. Wit has a better voice in a solo, but humor comes into the chorus best. Wit is as sharp as a stroke of lightning, whereas humor is diffuse like sunlight. Wit keeps the season's fashions and is precise in the phrases and judgments of the day, but humor is concerned with homely eternal things. Wit wears silk, but humor in homely-spun endures the wind. Wit sets a snare, whereas humor goes off whistling without a victim in its mind. Wit is sharper company at the table, but humor serves better in mischance and in the rain. When it tumbles wit is sour, but humor goes uncomplaining without its dinner. Humor laughs at another's jest and holds its sides, while wit sits wrapped in study for a lively answer.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Now you courtly dames and knights, That study only strange delights,... Though you scorn the home-spun gray And revel in your rich array; Though your tongues dissemble deep And can your heads from danger keep: Yet for all your pomp and train, Securer lives the silly swain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have not much faith in women in fiction.... Women are so horribly subjective and they have such scorn for the healthy commonplac...e. When a woman writes a story of adventure, a stout sea tale, a manly battle yarn, anything without wine, women, and love, then I will begin to hope for something great from them, not before.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I heartily wish you, in the plain home-spun style, a great number of happy new years, well employed in forming both your mind and ...your manners, to be useful and agreeable to yourself, your country, and your friends.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
O sinewy silver biplane, nudging the wind's withers! There, from Kill Devils Hill at Kitty Hawk... Two brothers in their twinship left the dune; Warping the gale, the Wright wind wrestlers veered Capeward, then blading the wind's flank, banked and spun.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Your rights reach down where all owners meet, in Hell's Pointed exclusive conclave, at earth's centre... (Your spun farm's root still on that axis dwells); And up, through galaxies, a growing sector.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »