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 »
But wise men pierce this rotten diction and fasten words again to visible things; so that picturesque language is at once a comman...ding certificate that he who employs it, is a man in alliance with truth and God.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... word-sniffing ... is an addiction, like glue--or snow--sniffing in a somewhat less destructive way, physically if not economic...ally.... As an addict ... I am almost guiltily interested in converts to my own illness, and in a pinch I can recommend nearly any reasonable solace, whether or not it qualifies as a true descendant of Noah Webster.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Look you, Doubloon, your zodiac here is the life of man in one round chapter.... To begin: there's Aries, or the Ram--lecherous do...g, he begets us; then, Taurus, or the Bull--he bumps us the first thing; then Gemini, or the Twins--that is, Virtue and Vice; we try to reach Virtue, when lo! comes Cancer the Crab, and drags us back; and here, going from Virtue, Leo, a roaring Lion, lies in the path--he gives a few fierce bites and surly dabs with his paw; we escape, and hail Virgo, the virgin! that's our first love; we marry and think to be happy for aye, when pop comes Libra, or the Scales--happiness weighed and found wanting; and while we are very sad about that, Lord! how we suddenly jump, as Scorpio, or the Scorpion, stings us in rear; we are curing the wound, when whang come the arrows all round; Sagittarius, or the Archer, is amusing himself. As we pluck out the shafts, stand aside! here's the battering-ram, Capricornus, or the Goat; full tilt, he comes rushing, and headlong we are tossed; when Aquarius, or the Waterbearer, pours out his whole deluge and drowns us; and, to wind up, with Pisces, or the Fishes, we sleep.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is moot whether there be divinities As I finish this play by Webster:... The street-cars are still running however And the katharsis fades in the warm water of a yawn.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who c...ontemplate no essential reform in the existing government; but for thinkers, and those who legislate for all time, he never once glances at the subject.... Comparatively, he is always strong, original, and, above all, practical. Still, his quality is not wisdom, but prudence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I hear a good deal said about trampling this law under foot. Why, one need not go out of his way to do that. This law rises not to... the level of the head or the reason; its natural habitat is in the dirt. It was born and bred, and has its life, only in the dust and mire, on a level with the feet; and he who walks with freedom, and does not with Hindoo mercy avoid treading on every venomous reptile, will inevitably tread on it, and so trample it under foot,--and Webster, its maker, with it, like the dirt-bug and its ball.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »