Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those ...who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadow about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There are a thousand unnoticed openings ... which let a penetrating eye at once into a man's soul; and I maintain ... that a man o...f sense does not lay down his hat in coming into a room,--or take it up in going out of it, but something escapes, which discovers him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... women are supposed to be unfit to vote because they are hysterical and emotional and of course men would not like to have emot...ion enter into a political campaign. They want to cut out all emotion and so they would like to cut us out. I had heard so much about our emotionalism that I went to the last Democratic national convention, held at Baltimore, to observe the calm repose of the male politicians. I saw some men take a picture of one gentleman whom they wanted elected and it was so big they had to walk sidewise as they carried it forward; they were followed by hundreds of other men screaming and yelling, shouting and singing the "Houn' Dawg".... I saw men jump up on the seats and throw their hats in the air and shout: "What's the matter with Champ Clark?" Then, when those hats came down, other men would kick them back into the air, shouting at the top of their voices: "He's all right!!"... No hysteria about it--just patriotic loyalty, splendid manly devotion to principle. And so they went on and on until 5 o'clock in the morning--the whole night long. I saw men jump up on their seats and jump down again and run around in a ring. I saw two men run towards another man to hug him both at once and they split his coat up the middle of his back and sent him spinning around like a wheel. All this with the perfect poise of the legal male mind in politics! I have been to many women's conventions in my day but I never saw a woman leap up on a chair and take off her bonnet and toss it up in the air and shout: "What's the matter with" somebody. I never saw a woman knock another woman's bonnet off her head as she screamed, "She's all right!".... But we are willing to admit that we are emotional. I have actually seen women stand up and wave their handkerchiefs. I have even seen them take hold of hands and sing, "Blest be the tie that binds." Nobody doubts that women are excitable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a ...hat and a gun.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary ...bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass--a idiot. If that's t...he eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience--by experience."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Well, you look so pretty in it Honey, can I jump on it sometime?... Yes, I just wanna see If it's really that expensive kind You know it balances on your head Just like a mattress balances On a bottle of wine Your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the m...emorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, "Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If any mention was made of homicide, madness, adultery, and intolerable tortures, we would let the church-bells ring louder, the c...hurch-organ swell its peal and drown the hideous sound. The sugar they raised was excellent: nobody tasted blood in it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The world,--this shadow of the soul, or other me, lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make... me acquainted with myself. I run eagerly into this resounding tumult. I grasp the hands of those next to me, and take my place in the ring to suffer and to work, taught by an instinct, that so shall the dumb abyss be vocal with speech.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »