It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stic...k where it is not just. I deny it. A truth learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I suppose the fact is that no friendship can stand the breakfast test.... Civilisation has done away with curl-papers, yet at that... hour the soul of the Hausfrau is as tightly screwed up in them as was ever her grandmother's hair, and though my body comes down mechanically, having been trained that way by punctual parents, my soul never thinks of beginning to wake up for other people till lunch-time, and never does so completely till it has been taken out of doors and aired in the sunshine. Who can begin conventional amiability the first thing in the morning? It is the hour of savage instincts and natural tendencies; it is the triumph of the Disagreeable and the Cross. I am convinced that the Muses and the Graces never thought of having breakfast anywhere but in bed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is no faith, and no stoicism, and no philosophy, that a mortal man can possibly evoke, which will stand the final test of a ...real impassioned onset of Life and Passion upon him. Then all the fair philosophic or Faith-phantoms that he raised from the mist, slide away and disappear as ghosts at cock-crow. For Faith and philosophy are air, but events are brass. Amidst his gray philosophizings, Life breaks in upon a man like a morning.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In an ancient and dead language, any recognition of living nature attracts us. These are such sentences as were written while gras...s grew and water ran. It is no small recommendation when a book will stand the test of mere unobstructed sunshine and daylight.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Here far from the city we make our roadside stand And ask for some city money to feel in hand... To try if it will not make our being expand, And give us the life of the moving-pictures' promise That the party in power is said to be keeping from us.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so... help me God. Amen.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't ...test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A fact is like a sack--it won't stand up if it's empty. To make it stand up, first you have to put in it all the reasons and feeli...ngs that caused it in the first place.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »