'Tis the maddest trick a man can ever play in his whole life, to let his breath sneak out of his body without any more ado, and wi...thout so much as a rap o'er the pate, or a kick of the guts; to go out like the snuff of a farthing candle, and die merely of the mulligrubs, or the sullens.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This is no rune nor symbol, what I mean is it is so simple... yet no trick of the pen or brush could capture that impression; what I wanted to indicate was a new phase, a new distinction of colour.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
None can re-enter there-- No thief so politic,... No Satan with a royal trick Steal in by window, chink, or hole, To bind or unbind, add what lacked, Insert a leaf, or forge a name, New-face or finish what is packed, Alter or mend eternal fact.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I had stopped to watch a family of brilliant icicles drip- dripping from the eaves of a frame house. So clear-cut were their point...ed shadows on the white boards behind them that I was sure the shadows of the falling drops should be visible too. But they were not. The roof jutted too far out, perhaps, or the angle of vision was faulty, or again, I did not chance to be watching the right icicle when the right drop fell. There was a rhythm, an alternation in the dropping that I found as teasing as a coin trick.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Family life in Western society since the time of the Old Testament has been a struggle to maintain patriarchy, male domination, an...d double standards in the face of a natural drift towards monogamous bonding. Young men have been called upon to prove their masculinity by their willingness to die in warfare, and young women have been called upon to prove their femininity by their willingness to die for their man. Women have been asked to appear small, dumb, and helpless so men would feel big and strong, brave, and clever. It's been a trick.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In a nominally egalitarian society the ideal situation (socially speaking) is one in which the members of the "wrong" groups have ...the freedom to engage in literature (or equally significant activities) and yet do not do so, thus proving that they can't. But, alas, give them the least real freedom and they will do it. The trick thus becomes to make the freedom as nominal a freedom as possible and then--since some of the so-and-so's will do it anyway--develop various strategies for ignoring, condemning, or belittling the artistic works that result. If properly done, these strategies result in a social situation in which the "wrong" people are (supposedly) free to commit literature, art, or whatever, but very few do, and those who do (it seems) do it badly, so we can all go home to lunch.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes; Treason is but trusted like the fox,... Who never so tame, so cherished and locked up, Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
So, we'll go no more a-roving So late into the night,... Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright. For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast. And the heart must pause to breathe And love itself have rest.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
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 »