Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new m...onth or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was somewhere in the '70's that the fiend gossip came into New York society to stay. The first newspaper outburst that I rememb...er was after the Beecher trial, which was a terrible beginning. Then the papers began with attacks upon women. There were stories of kleptomaniacs, and of a young and fashionable man who had stolen his cousin's ring at a dinner-party, etc., etc. None of this sort of story was allowed at the dinner of Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Belmont, or Mrs. Fish. I can imagine the fine face of the latter freezing into marble had any one opened such a door of Bluebeard's closet in her stately presence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In marriage there are no manners to keep up, and beneath the wildest accusations no real criticism. Each is familiar with that anc...ient child in the other who may erupt again.... We are not ridiculous to ourselves. We are ageless. That is the luxury of the wedding ring.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This is the gospel of labour, ring it, ye bells of the kirk! The Lord of Love came down from above, to live with the men who ...work. This is the rose that He planted, here in the thorn-curst soil: Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is nothing real or useful that is not a seat of war. Our houses ring with laughter and personal and critical gossip, but it ...helps little. But the uncivil, unavailable man, who is a problem and a threat to society, whom it cannot let pass in silence, but must either worship or hate,--and to whom all parties feel related, both the leaders of opinion, and the obscure and eccentric,--he helps; he puts America and Europe in the wrong, and destroys the skepticism which says, "man is a doll, let us eat and drink, 'tis the best we can do," by illuminating the untried and unknown.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A little weeping, a little wheedling, a little self-degradation, a little careful use of our advantages, and then some man will sa...y--"Come, be my wife!" With good looks and youth marriage is easy to attain. There are men enough; but a woman who has sold herself, even for a ring and a new name, need hold her skirt aside for no creature in the street. They both earn their bread in one way. Marriage for love is the beautifullest external symbol of the union of souls; marriage without it is the uncleanliest traffic that defiles the world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
He will not idly dance at his work who has wood to cut and cord before nightfall in the short days of winter; but every stroke wil...l be husbanded, and ring soberly through the wood; and so will the strokes of that scholar's pen, which at evening record the story of the day, ring soberly, yet cheerily, on the ear of the reader, long after the echoes of his axe have died away.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Three years ago, also, just a week after the authorities of Boston assembled to carry back a perfectly innocent man, and one whom ...they knew to be innocent, into slavery, the inhabitants of Concord caused the bells to be rung and the cannons to be fired, to celebrate their liberty,--and the courage and love of liberty of their ancestors who fought at the bridge. As if those three millions had fought for the right to be free themselves, but to hold in slavery three million others. Nowadays, men wear a fool's cap, and call it a liberty-cap. I do not know but there are some who, if they were tied to a whipping-post, and could but get one hand free, would use it to ring the bells and fire the cannons to celebrate their liberty. So some of my townsmen took the liberty to ring and fire. That was the extent of their freedom; and when the sound of the bells died away, their liberty died away also; when the powder was all expended, their liberty went off with the smoke. The joke could be no broader if the inmates of the prisons were used to subscribe for all the powder to be used in such salutes, and hire the jailers to do the firing and ringing for them, while they enjoyed it through the grating.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing, And sing and weep, soared up into the ring;... But most would use no wing. O fools, said I, thus to prefer dark night Before true light!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »