The Revolt of Modern Youth

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Boni & Liveright, 1925 - 354 pages
 

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Page 338 - But the man is, as it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness. As soon as he has once acted or spoken with e'clat he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this.
Page 339 - 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. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
Page 162 - There is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him : but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
Page 338 - ... people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests : he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him : he does not court you. But the man is, as it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness.
Page 339 - They do not seem to me to be such ; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this ; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.
Page 338 - The nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as much as a lord to do or say aught to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature.
Page 338 - ... to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it. So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself. Do not think the youth has no force because he cannot speak to you and me. Hark ! in the next room his voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic. It seems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries.
Page 339 - What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within?" my friend suggested-"But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil" No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.
Page 131 - Her voice was ever soft, Gentle, and low, — an excellent thing in woman.
Page 54 - Hell-fire has lost its hold. In the past the revolt of youth always turned out to be a futile gesture. It never brought much change. But now the gun is loaded. These boys and girls can do what boys and girls never were able to do in the past. They can live up to their manifesto, and nothing can prevent them. The external restraints, economic restraints that were once so potent, have gone never to return...

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