Since [Rousseau's] time, and largely thanks to him, the Ego has steadily tended to efface itself, and, for purposes of model, to b...ecome a manikin on which the toilet of education is to be draped in order to show the fit or misfit of the clothes. The object of study is the garment, not the figure.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Everything that was ever to happen to me in the future had its germ or impulse in the conditions of my life on Dover Street. My fr...iendships, my advantages and disadvantages, my gifts, my habits, my ambitions--these were the materials out of which I built my after life, in the open workshop of America. My days in the slums were pregnant with possibilities; it only needed the ripeness of events to make them fruit forth in realities. Steadily as I worked to win America, America advanced to lie at my feet. I was an heir, on Dover Street, awaiting maturity. I was a princess waiting to be led to the throne.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In the history of human inquiry, philosophy has the place of the initial central sun, seminal and tumultuous; from time to time it... throws of some portion of itself to take station as a science, a planet, cool and well regulated, progressing steadily towards a distant final state.... Is it not possible that the next century may see the birth, through the joint efforts of philosophers, grammarians, and numerous other students of language, of a true and comprehensive science of language? Then we shall have rid ourselves of one more part of philosophy (there will still be plenty left) in the only way we ever can get rid of philosophy, by kicking it upstairs.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The tendency of things runs steadily to this point, namely, to put every man on his merits, and to give him so much power as he na...turally exerts,--no more, no less.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear, alike in the poverty of the obscurest farm, and in t...he miscellany of metropolitan life, and that these few are alone to be regarded,--the escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are; and love what is simple and beautiful; independence and cheerful relation, these are the essentials,--these, and the wish to serve,--to add somewhat to the well-being of men.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We commonly say that the rich man can speak the truth, can afford honesty, can afford independence of opinion and action;--and tha...t is the theory of nobility. But it is the rich man in a true sense, that is to say, not the man of large income and large expenditure, but solely the man whose outlay is less than his income and is steadily kept so.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; ...but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Of course, money will do after its kind, and will steadily work to unspiritualize and unchurch the people to whom it was bequeathe...d.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The word "obligation" is very seldom in my thoughts, and consequently very seldom is it uttered by my tongue. For I am satisfied t...hat whoever hath the word "obligation" continually in his mouth hath the love of tyranny steadily fixed in his heart.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »