It always appeared to me that he estimated the compositions of Richardson too highly, and that he had an unreasonable prejudice ag...ainst Fielding. In comparing these two writers, he used this expression: "that there was as great a difference between them as between a man who knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking at the dial plate." This was a short and figurative state of his distinction between drawing characters of nature and characters only of manners. But I cannot help being of opinion , that the neat watches of Fielding are as well constructed as the large clocks of Richardson, and that his dial-plates are brighter.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In comparing these two writers, he [Samuel Johnson] used this expression: "that there was as great a difference between them as be...tween a man who knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking on the dial-plate." This was a short and a figurative statement of his distinction between drawing characters of nature and characters only of manners, but I cannot help being of opinion, that the neat watches of Fielding are as well constructed as the large clocks of Richardson, and that his dial plates are brighter.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A man is reputed to have thought and eloquence; he cannot, for all that, say a word to his cousin or his uncle. They accuse his si...lence with as much reason as they would blame the insignificance of a dial in the shade. In the sun it will mark the hour. Among those who enjoy his thought, he will regain his tongue.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The television screen, so unlike the movie screen, sharply reduced human beings, revealed them as small, trivial, flat, in two ban...al dimensions, drained of color. Wasn't there something reassuring about it!--that human beings were in fact merely images of a kind registered in one another's eyes and brains, phenomena composed of microscopic flickering dots like atoms. They were atoms--nothing more. A quick switch of the dial and they disappeared and who could lament the loss?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Although I will inherit darkness I will keep dialing left to right.... I will struggle like a surgeon. I will call quickly for the glare of the moon. I will even dial milk.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What, keep a week away? Seven days and nights, Eightscore-eight hours, and lovers' absent hours... More tedious than the dial eightscore times! O weary reckoning!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »