Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ... I had heard of you by t...he hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Well may Mr. [David] Garrick be so celebrated, so universally admired--I had not any idea of so great a performer. Such ease! such... vivacity in his manner! such grace in his motions! such fire and meaning in his eyes!--I could hardly believe he had studied a written part, for every word seemed uttered from the impulse of the moment. ... his voice--so clear, so melodious, yet so wonderfully various in its tones!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe, Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast,... Is that portentous phrase, "I told you so," Uttered by friends, those prophets of the past.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
His eloquence was of every kind, and he excelled in the argumentative as well as in the declamatory way. But his invectives were t...errible, and uttered with such energy of diction, and stern dignity of action and countenance, that he intimidated those who were the most willing and the best able to encounter him. Their arms fell out of their hands, and they shrunk under the ascendant which his genius gained over theirs.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Rationally considered, nothing can be more absurd than the baptism of infants under any circumstances. No statement, no matter by ...whom it may be said to have been uttered, can make that true which is radically false. If an innocent child, unconscious of good or evil, irresponsible to God and man, incapable of thought or action, is not already, in accordance with Christian theology, a member of Christ, then no vicarious promise or priestly ablution can make him one. For if this were so, a similar ceremony under devil worship could make him a member of Satan.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The very hirelings of the press, whose trade it is to buoy up the spirits of the people ... have uttered falsehoods so long, they ...have played off so many tricks, that their budget seems, at last, to be quite empty.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Shakespeare carries us to such a lofty strain of intelligent activity, as to suggest a wealth which beggars his own; and we then f...eel that the splendid works which he has created, and which in other hours we extol as a sort of self-existent poetry, take no stronger hold of real nature than the shadow of a passing traveller on the rock. The inspiration which uttered itself in Hamlet and Lear could utter things as good from day to day, for ever.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The word "obligation" is very seldom in my thoughts, and consequently very seldom is it uttered by my tongue. For I am satisfied t...hat whoever hath the word "obligation" continually in his mouth hath the love of tyranny steadily fixed in his heart.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is yet another kind of matrimonial dialect (which naturally succeeds this of talking at each other), which may very properly... be styled The Language Contradictory.... In the former, however plain the object of satire may be exhibited to the whole company, yet there always remains some little covering.... But in this last method, the defiance becomes more open and the impetuosity with which these contradictions are uttered (although the subjects of them are often of the most indifferent nature) evidently prove that they arise from passion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The kinship between the Prometheus myth and the Book of Job is obvious enough. Both heroes, blameless and upright, suffer at the h...and, or at least by the leave, of the Supreme Deity. But the Book of Job ends in the utter confusion of man's intelligence. "There have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not ... Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." The stricken Titan, on the contrary, in the closing words of Aeschylus's tragedy, still protests against his "wrongs." We feel that the Greeks could not have stopped at that point; their spirit was not one of Shelleyan defiance or Byronic despair.... Higher than the caprices and pride of Zeus, higher also than the desperate endeavor of Prometheus, stands intelligent law.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »