I claim ... that there is a feminine as well as a masculine side to truth ...That as the man is more noble in reason, so the woman... is more quick in sympathy. That as he is indefatigable in pursuit of abstract truth, so is she in caring for the interests by the way--striving tenderly and lovingly that not one of the least of these "little ones" should perish. That while we not unfrequently see women who reason, we say, with the coolness and precision of a man, and men as considerate of helplessness as a woman, still there is a general consensus of mankind that the one trait is essentially masculine and the other as peculiarly feminine. That both are needed to be worked into the training of children, in order that our boys may supplement their virility by tenderness and sensibility, and our girls may round out their gentleness by strength and self-reliance. That, as both are alike necessary in giving symmetry to the individual, so a nation or a race will degenerate into mere emotionalism on the one hand, or ballism on the other, if dominated by either exclusively; lastly, and most emphatically, that the feminine factor can have its proper effect only through woman's development and education so that she may fitly and intelligently stamp her force on the forces of her day, and add her modicum to the riches of the world's thought.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Doorman--a genius who can open the door of your car with one hand, help you in with the other, and still have one left for the tip....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When a generation watches the young ones, their future, their responsibility, grow up, and when what they are to inherit is pitifu...l and so reduced, then the shame of it goes too deep for reasoning. No, it was not our fault that our children had to learn such hardship, had to forego so much that we, the older ones, had inherited. Our fault it was not; but we felt that it was. We were learning, we old ones, that in times when a species, a race, is under threat, drives and necessities built into the very substance of our flesh speak out in ways that we need never have known about if extremities had not come to squeeze these truths out of us. An older, a passing, generation needs to hand on goodness, something fine and high--even if it is only in potential--to their children. And if there isn't this bequest to put into their hands, then there is a bitterness and a pain that makes it hard to look into young eyes, young faces.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made my book t...han my book has made me--a book consubstantial with its author, concerned with my own self, an integral part of my life; not concerned with some third-hand, extraneous purpose, like all other books.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The unlucky hand dealt to clear and precise writers is that people assume they are superficial and so do not go to any trouble in ...reading them: and the lucky hand dealt to unclear ones is that the reader does go to some trouble and then attributes the pleasure he experiences in his own zeal to them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is an insult to God to believe in God. For on the one hand it is to suppose that he has perpetrated acts of incalculable cruelt...y. On the other hand, it is to suppose that he has perversely given his human creatures an instrument--their intellect--which must inevitably lead them, if they are dispassionate and honest, to deny his existence. It is tempting to conclude that if he exists, it is the atheists and agnostics that he loves best, among those with any pretensions to education. For they are the ones who have taken him most seriously.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not a duellum, but a bellum, a war between t...wo races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black. The legions of these Myrmidons covered all the hills and vales in my wood-yard, and the ground was already strewn with the dead and dying, both red and black. It was the only battle which I have ever witnessed, the only battlefield I ever trod while the battle was raging; internecine war; the red republicans on the one hand, and the black imperialists on the other. On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet without any noise that I could hear, and human soldiers never fought so resolutely.... The more you think of it, the less the difference. And certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment's comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make. Few writers have had less journalistic talent than James, and th...is is his defect, for the supreme masters have one trait in common with the childish scribbling mass, the vulgar curiosity of a police-court reporter.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My Christian friends, in bonds of love, whose hearts in sweetest union join, Your friendship's like a drawing band, yet we mu...st take the parting hand. Your company's sweet, your union dear; Your words delightful to my ear, Yet when I see that we must part, You draw like cords around my heart.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »