Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction; but that is to go to the very opposit...e extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful. Is not our native soil auriferous? Does not a stream from the golden mountains flow through our native valley? and has not this for more than geologic ages been bringing down the shining particles and forming the nuggets for us? Yet, strange to tell, if a digger steal away, prospecting for this true gold, into the unexplored solitudes around us, there is no danger that any will dog his steps, and endeavor to supplant him. He may claim and undermine the whole valley even, both the cultivated and the uncultivated portions, his whole life long in peace, for no one will ever dispute his claim. They will not mind his cradle or his toms. He is not confined to a claim twelve feet square,... but may mine anywhere, and wash the whole wide world in his tom.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
'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 »
I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a ...hat and a gun.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I was by degrees awakened as from a dream, and feared that my whole life could properly be counted nothing else but a fantastic vi...sion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Frances Stevens: Even in this light, I can tell where your eyes are looking. Look John, hold them--diamonds--the only thing in the... world you can't resist. Then tell me you don't know what I'm talking about. Ever had a better offer in your whole life, one with everything? John Robie: I've never had a crazier one. Frances Stevens: Just as long as you're satisfied. John Robie: You know as well as I do, this necklace is imitation. Frances Stevens: Well, I'm not.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The great leading distinction between writing and speaking is, that more time is allowed for the one than the other, and hence dif...ferent faculties are required for, and different objects attained by each. He is properly the best speaker who can collect together the greatest number of apposite ideas at a moment's warning; he is properly the best writer who can give utterance to the greatest quantity of valuable knowledge in the course of his whole life. The chief requisite for the one, then, appears to be quickness and facility of perception--for the other, patience of soul and a power increasing with the difficulties it has to master. He cannot be denied to be an expert speaker, a lively companion, who is never at a loss for something to say on every occasion or subject that offers. He, by the same rule, will make a respectable writer who, by dint of study, can find out anything good to say upon any one point that has not yet been touched upon before, or who by asking for time, can give the most complete and comprehensive view of any question. The one must be done off-hand, at a single blow; the other can only be done by a repetition of blows, by having time to think and do better.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not infrequently) to our cost, when we have been wheedled out of them by plaus...ible professions or studied actions. A man's look is the work of years; it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more, by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »