The Orientals have another word for accident; it is "kismet,"--fate.
In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals.
Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!
He had done that which could never be forgiven; he was in the grasp of one who never forgave.
It is certain that satirical poems were common at Rome from a very early period. The rustics, who lived at a distance from the seat of government, and took little part in the strife of factions, gave vent to their petty local animosities in coarse Fescennine verse.
A beggarly people, A church and no steeple.
The conformation of his mind was such that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever was great seemed to him little.
I shall not be satisfied unless I produce something which shall for a few days supersede the last fashionable novel on the tables of young ladies.
Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found together. Obscurity and affectation are the two greatest faults of style. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas; and the same wish to dazzle, at any cost, which produces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likely to produce sophistry in his reasonings.
If ever Shakespeare rants, it is not when his imagination is hurrying him along, but when he is hurrying his imagination along.
Highest among those who have exhibited human nature by means of dialogue stands Shakespeare. His variety is like the variety of nature,--endless diversity, scarcely any monstrosity.
Was none who would be foremost To lead such dire attack; But those behind cried "Forward!" And those before cried "Back!
Lars Porsena of Clusium By the Nine Gods he swore That the great house of Tarquin Should suffer wrongs no more.
We do not think it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison; let the vender prove it to be sanative.
Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here.
We must judge of a form of government by it's general tendency, not by happy accidents
Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action; it inspires no enthusiasm; it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs.
Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.
I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history if I can succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their ancestors.
The English Bible - a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.
Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.
The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm.
Nothing is so useless as a general maxim.
There are countries in which it would be as absurd to establish popular governments as to abolish all the restraints in a school or to unite all the strait-waistcoats in a madhouse.
The impenetrable stupidity of Prince George (son-in-law of James II) served his turn. It was his habit, when any news was told him, to exclaim, "Est il possible?"-"Is it possible?"
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