Essays, Volume 2Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1888 - American literature |
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Page 13
... conversation , are portraits in which he finds the lineaments he is forming . The silent and the eloquent praise him and accost him , and he is stimulated wherever he moves , as by per- sonal allusions . A true aspirant therefore never ...
... conversation , are portraits in which he finds the lineaments he is forming . The silent and the eloquent praise him and accost him , and he is stimulated wherever he moves , as by per- sonal allusions . A true aspirant therefore never ...
Page 34
... renewed . Man is the broken giant , and in all his weakness both his body and his mind are invig orated by habits of conversation with nature . When the gods The power of music , the power of poetry , to 34 HISTORY .
... renewed . Man is the broken giant , and in all his weakness both his body and his mind are invig orated by habits of conversation with nature . When the gods The power of music , the power of poetry , to 34 HISTORY .
Page 56
... the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease , in answer to conversation which does not interest us . The muscles , not spon taneously moved but moved by a low usurping wil- fulness 56 SELF - RELIANCE .
... the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease , in answer to conversation which does not interest us . The muscles , not spon taneously moved but moved by a low usurping wil- fulness 56 SELF - RELIANCE .
Page 93
... cannot demonstrate . For men are wiser than they know . That which they hear in schools and pulpits without afterthought , if said in conversation would probably be questioned in silence . If a man dog- COMPENSATION . 93.
... cannot demonstrate . For men are wiser than they know . That which they hear in schools and pulpits without afterthought , if said in conversation would probably be questioned in silence . If a man dog- COMPENSATION . 93.
Page 103
... conversation . It finds a tongue in literature un- awares . Thus the Greeks called Jupiter , Supreme Mind ; but having traditionally ascribed to him many base actions , they involuntarily made amends to reason by tying up the hands of ...
... conversation . It finds a tongue in literature un- awares . Thus the Greeks called Jupiter , Supreme Mind ; but having traditionally ascribed to him many base actions , they involuntarily made amends to reason by tying up the hands of ...
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Common terms and phrases
action antinomianism appear beauty behold believe better Bonduca Cæsar character church conversation dæmon divine earth Epaminondas eternal evil experience fact fancy fear feel force friendship genius gifts give hand heart heaven hour human individual intel intellect less light live look love for love lover man's manner marriage measure for measure ment mind moral Napoleon nature never noble numbers object OVER-SOUL overmastered party pass perfect persons Phidias phrenologists Plato Plotinus Plutarch poet poetry present Proclus prudence relations religion secret seems sense sentiment society Sophocles soul speak spirit stand stars sweet symbol talent thee things thou thought tion to-day true truth ture universal vale of Tempe virtue whilst whole wisdom wise wonderful words Xenophon Yunani Zoroaster
Popular passages
Page 17 - To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.
Page 19 - Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Page 17 - A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
Page 19 - A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace.
Page 275 - Our log-rolling, our stumps and their politics, our fisheries, our Negroes and Indians, our boats and our repudiations, the wrath of rogues and the pusillanimity of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, the western clearing, Oregon and Texas, are yet unsung. Yet America is a poem in our eyes ; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.
Page 23 - ... when the unintelligent brute force that lies at the bottom of society is made to growl and mow, it needs the habit of magnanimity and religion to treat it godlike as a trifle of no concernment.
Page 212 - He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets, — most likely his father's. He gets test, commodity, and reputation ; but he shuts the door of truth.
Page 45 - What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under ! But compare the health of the two men and you shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength.
Page 28 - A man Caesar is born, and for ages after we have a Roman Empire. Christ is born, and millions of minds so grow and cleave to his genius that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, Monachism, of the Hermit Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, of Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called "the height 20 of Rome"; and all history resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout...
Page 165 - There is a difference between one and another hour of life, in their authority and subsequent effect Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual. Yet there is a depth in those brief moments which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences.