Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past. The one thing finished in this hasty world. The Cathedral. These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred, Ibid. In a copy of Omar Khayyam. The clear, sweet singer with the crown of snow To George William Curtis. But life is sweet, though all that makes it sweet Ibid. In life's small things be resolute and great In vain we call old notions fudge, Epigram. Motto of the American Copyright League (written Nov. 20, 1885). Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character. Among my Books. First Series. Dryden. A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic. Shakespeare Once More. One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning. Ibid. Aspiration sees only one side of every question; possession many. Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago. Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction. Ibid. There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business. Puritanism, believing itself quick with the religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the democracy. Ibid. seed of egg of Ibid. It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was practically settled. Ibid. Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists. There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not sooner or later responded. Ibid. Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. Ibid. Sentiment is intellectualized emotion, — emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy. Ibid. No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself. Ibid. In all literary history there is no such figure as Dante, no such homogeneousness of life and works, such loyalty to ideas, such sublime irrecognition of the unessential. Second Series. Dante. Whoever can endure unmixed delight, whoever can tolerate music and painting and poetry all in one, who ever wishes to be rid of thought and to let the busy anvils of the brain be silent for a time, let him read in the "Faery Queen." Among my Books. Second Series. Spenser. The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers, is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience. My Study Windows. Abraham Lincoln, 1864. It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested. Ibid. What a sense of security in an old book which Time has criticised for us! Library of Old Authors. There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat. Democracy and Addresses. Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come. Ibid. The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in. Garfield. A great man is made up of qualities that meet or make great occasions. Ibid. It ["The Ancient Mariner"] is marvellous in its mastery over that delightfully fortuitous inconsequence that is the adamantine logic of dreamland. Coleridge. He gives us the very quintessence of perception, the clearly crystalized precipitation of all that is most precious in the ferment of impression after the impertinent and obtrusive particulars have evaporated from the memory. Ibid. If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I should answer that there is one book better than a cheap book, and that is a book honestly come by. Before the U. S. Senate Committee on Patents, Jan. 29, 1886. CHARLES KINGSLEY. 1819-1875. O Mary, go and call the cattle home, Across the sands o' Dee! The Sands of Dee. Men must work, and women must weep. The Three Fishers. Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; A Farewell. The world goes up and the world goes down, Dolcino to Margaret. ULYSSES S. GRANT. 1822-1885. No other terms than unconditional and immediate surrender. I propose to move immediately upon your works. To Gen. S. B. Buckner, Fort Donelson, Feb. 16, 1862. I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer. Despatch to Washington. Before Spottsylvania Court House, Let us have peace. Accepting a Nomination for the Presidency, May 29, 1868. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effectual as their strict construction. From the Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869. Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a duty. Indorsement of a Letter relating to the Whiskey Ring, July 29, 1875. MATTHEW ARNOLD. 1822-1888. Others abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask. Thou smilest and art still, Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes; Ah, would that I did too! To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost Which blamed the living man. Time may restore us in his course Goethe's sage mind and Byron's force; Shakespeare. Requiescat. Growing Old. Memorial Verses. Wandering between two worlds, - one dead, Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse. The kings of modern thought are dumb. Ibid. Philistine must have originally meant, in the mind. of those who invented the nickname, a strong, dogged, unenlightened opponent of the children of the light. Essays in Criticism. Heinrich Heine. There is no better motto which it [culture] can have than these words of Bishop Wilson, "To make reason and the will of God prevail." Culture and Anarchy. P. 8. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 1822 He serves his party best who serves the country best.1 Inaugural Address, March 5, 1877. 1 See Pope, page 339. |