Sunday, March 18, 2007

Perspectives on Ideas March 18, 2007

Character (concluded)
139 Achilles: I hate/ as I hate Hell’s own gate that man who hides/ one thought within him while he speaks another. Homer, Iliad.

15 [Lincoln] stands for decency, honest dealing, plain talk, and funny stories. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years

16 To be true to all truth the world denies,/ Not tongue-tied by its gilded lies;/ Not always right in all men’s eyes,/ But faithful to the light within. --Feb. 12, 1959. Congressional Record. Carl Sandburg’s address to a joint session of Congress commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years

39 In the making of him [Lincoln], the element of silence was immense. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years

424 Praxagora: Always suspecting those that most do love you,/ Always smiling on those that smile to hurt you. Aristophanes, Ecclesiazusae.

447 Citizen: He’d rather sit/ For thirty days acquiring piles on the stool. Aristophanes, Ecclesiazusae.

266 ...vegetable-diet sort of man...a kind of being who seemed to be an essential part of the desk at which he was writing, and to have as much thought or sentiment. Dickens, Pickwick.

339 Mr. Jinks, who was busily engaged in looking as busy as possible. Dickens, Pickwick.

404 Above all, he saw that men like himself, who snarled at the mirth and cheerfulness of others, were the foulest weeds on the fair surface of the earth. Dickens, Pickwick.

406 They are fine fellows...with judgments matured by observation and reflection; tastes refined by reading and study. Dickens, Pickwick.

428 When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good for other people. Dickens, Pickwick.

471 The silence awoke Mr. Justice Starleigh, who immediately wrote down something with a pen without any ink in it, and looked unusually profound, to impress the jury with the belief that he always thought most deeply with his eyes shut. Dickens, Pickwick.

799 Some men like bats or owls, have better eyes for the darkness than for the light. Dickens, Pickwick.

xv How Mr. Winkle, instead of shooting at the pigeon and killing the crow, shot at the crow and wounded the pigeon. Chapter VII. Table of Contents. Dickens, Pickwick.

793 Everything English is a fusion of distant and antagonistic elements. Emerson, English Traits.

807 [The Saxons] have the taste for toil, a distaste for pleasure or repose, and the telescopic appreciation for distant gain. Emerson, English Traits.

831 An Englishman understates, avoids the superlative, checks himself in compliments…. Emerson, English Traits.

834 The Englishman who visits Mount Etna will carry his tea kettle to the top. Emerson, English Traits.

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