That strange premature genius Chatterton has couched in one line the quintessence of what Voltaire has said in many pages: "Reason..., a thorn in Revelation's side."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Men are not to be told anything they might find too painful; the secret depths of human nature, the sordid physicalities, might ov...erwhelm or damage them. For instance, men often faint at the sight of their own blood, to which they are not accustomed. For this reason you should never stand behind one in the line at the Red Cross donor clinic.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am no lover of pompous title, but only desire that my name may be recorded in a line or two, which shall briefly express my name..., my virginity, the years of my reign, the reformation of religion under it, and my preservation of peace.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As for conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. Let not your right hand know what you...r left hand does in that line of business. It will prove a failure.... It is a greater strain than any soul can long endure. When you get God to pulling one way, and the devil the other, each having his feet well braced,--to say nothing of the conscience sawing transversely,--almost any timber will give way.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This man was very clever and quick to learn anything in his line. Our tent was of a kind new to him; but when he had once seen it ...pitched, it was surprising how quickly he would find and prepare the pole and forked stakes to pitch it with, cutting and placing them right the first time, though I am sure that the majority of white men would have blundered several times.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said, and never thought no more about reforming. I ...shoved the whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I fear I agree with your friend in not liking all sermons. Some of them, one has to confess, are rubbish: but then I release my at...tention from the preacher, and go ahead in any line of thought he may have started: and his after-eloquence acts as a kind of accompaniment--like music while one is reading poetry, which often, to me, adds to the effect.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
He doesn't want you for friends, that's why he did it. You see, when guys have been in the line as long as we have, you find out i...t's no good to make friends, 'cause when a friend gets it--well, it's rough on you. The buddies that come with you you're stuck with, but you don't make no new ones. It's the dyin' truth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »