Essays: First SeriesD. McKay, 1888 - 396 pages |
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Page 10
... to it with swords and laws , and wide and complex com- binations . The obscure consciousness of this fact is the light of all our day ... to acts of self - reliance . It is remarkable that involuntarily we always read as superior beings ...
... to it with swords and laws , and wide and complex com- binations . The obscure consciousness of this fact is the light of all our day ... to acts of self - reliance . It is remarkable that involuntarily we always read as superior beings ...
Page 12
... of the firmament . These hints , dropped as it were from sleep and night , let us use in broad day . The stu- dent is to read history actively and not passively ; to esteem his own life the text , and books the commentary . Thus ...
... of the firmament . These hints , dropped as it were from sleep and night , let us use in broad day . The stu- dent is to read history actively and not passively ; to esteem his own life the text , and books the commentary . Thus ...
Page 23
... of the fish . The whole of heraldry and of chivalry is in courtesy . A man of fine manners shall pronounce your name with all the ornament that titles of nobility could ever add . The trivial experience of every day is always verifying some ...
... of the fish . The whole of heraldry and of chivalry is in courtesy . A man of fine manners shall pronounce your name with all the ornament that titles of nobility could ever add . The trivial experience of every day is always verifying some ...
Page 24
... day , my companion pointed out to me a broad cloud , which might extend a quarter of a mile parallel to the hori- zon , quite accurately in the form of a cherub as painted over churches , —a round block in the centre which it was easy ...
... day , my companion pointed out to me a broad cloud , which might extend a quarter of a mile parallel to the hori- zon , quite accurately in the form of a cherub as painted over churches , —a round block in the centre which it was easy ...
Page 35
... to the child when he becomes a man , only by seeing that the op- pressor of his youth is himself a child tyran ... day had to lament the decay of piety in his own household . " Doctor , " said his wife to Martin Luther one day , " how is ...
... to the child when he becomes a man , only by seeing that the op- pressor of his youth is himself a child tyran ... day had to lament the decay of piety in his own household . " Doctor , " said his wife to Martin Luther one day , " how is ...
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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.