Essays: First SeriesD. McKay, 1888 - 396 pages |
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Page 7
... genius is illustrated by the entire series of days . Man is explicable by nothing less than all his history . Without hurry , with- out rest , the human spirit goes forth from the beginning to embody every faculty , every thought ...
... genius is illustrated by the entire series of days . Man is explicable by nothing less than all his history . Without hurry , with- out rest , the human spirit goes forth from the beginning to embody every faculty , every thought ...
Page 10
... the triumphs of will , or of genius , anywhere lose our ear , any- where make us feel that we intrude , that this is for our betters , but rather is it true that in their grandest strokes , there we feel most at home 10 ESSAY I.
... the triumphs of will , or of genius , anywhere lose our ear , any- where make us feel that we intrude , that this is for our betters , but rather is it true that in their grandest strokes , there we feel most at home 10 ESSAY I.
Page 14
... genius and creative principle of each and of all eras in my own mind . - We are always coming up with the facts that have moved us in history in our private ex- perience , and verifying them here . All history becomes subjective ; in ...
... genius and creative principle of each and of all eras in my own mind . - We are always coming up with the facts that have moved us in history in our private ex- perience , and verifying them here . All history becomes subjective ; in ...
Page 17
... genius , obeying its law , knows how to play with them as a young child plays with greybeards and in churches . Genius 2 HISTORY . 17.
... genius , obeying its law , knows how to play with them as a young child plays with greybeards and in churches . Genius 2 HISTORY . 17.
Page 18
... Genius watches the monad through all his masks as he performs the metempsychosis of nature . Genius detects through the fly , through the caterpillar , through the grub , through the egg , the constant type of the individual ; through ...
... Genius watches the monad through all his masks as he performs the metempsychosis of nature . Genius detects through the fly , through the caterpillar , through the grub , through the egg , the constant type of the individual ; through ...
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action affection appear beautiful soul beauty becomes behold better black event Bonduca Cæsar Calvinistic character child circle conversation divine doctrine Egypt Epaminondas eternal evanescent fact fear feel friendship genius gifts give Greek hand heart heaven Heraclitus heroism hour human instinct intel intellect less light live look lose man's marriage ment mind moral nature ness never noble object OVER-SOUL painted pass perception perfect persons Petrarch Phidias Phocion Pindar Plato Plotinus Plutarch poet poetry proverb prudence Pyrrhonism relations religion Rome sculpture secret seek seems seen sense sensual Shakspeare society Socrates Sophocles soul speak Spinoza spirit stand stoicism sweet talent teach thee things thou thought tion to-day true truth ture universal virtue whilst whole wisdom wise words Xenophon youth
Popular passages
Page 64 - A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
Page 52 - There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide ; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion ; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
Page 52 - 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 75 - These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are ; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose ; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.
Page 128 - Some damning circumstance always transpires. The laws and substances of nature water, snow, wind, gravitation - become penalties to the thief. On the other hand, the law holds with equal sureness for all right action. Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation.
Page 78 - Why, then, do we prate of self-reliance ? Inasmuch as the soul is present, there will be power not confident but agent. To talk of reliance is a poor external way of speaking. Speak rather of that which relies, because it works and is.
Page 121 - As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. The stag in the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet, but when the hunter came, his feet saved him, and afterwards, caught in the thicket, his horns destroyed him.
Page 60 - What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.
Page 53 - Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.
Page 81 - O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after appearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truth's. Be it known unto you that henceforward I obey no law less than the eternal law.