Quotes: Old Age

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Old Age
Few people know how to grow old.
Old age 48 LaRochefoucauld said that “Few know how to grow old.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.

If I were a figure in wax, it would be just as well because I go through the same routine every day.
Old Age 231 I said to myself yesterday that a figure of me in wax would do just as well…I get up and dress myself, and make the journey downstairs, and sit here at the window and have my dinner and go through the same round day after day. Jewett, A Country Doctor.

The old mariners sun themselves every morning on the wharves.
Old age 49 …the ancient mariners, who may be found every pleasant morning sunning themselves like turtles on one of the wharves. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.

He hoarded his wealth in order to maintain the respect of his relatives.
Old Age 133 And if a man should reply to me, as a lord of good understanding once did, that he hoarded up wealth not to extract any other fruit and use from it but to make himself honored and sought after by his own relations, and that age having deprived him of all other powers, it was the only remedy left to him for maintaining his authority in his family and for avoiding being scorned and despised by everybody…. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

The mind must rescue me from old age.
Old age 321 …it is the privilege of the mind to rescue itself from old age. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

As we grow older, we lose our closeness to nature because of our accumulation of experience.
Old age 1059 We all of us, as we grow older…lose somewhat of our proximity to nature…the price we pay for experience. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.

She was older by a hundred wrinkles.
Old age 458 Epigenes: She’s worse than the other, worse by a hundred wrinkles. Ecclesiazusae.

He was the leader of “Young America” against the old fogies who were people of hesitation.
Old Fogies 199 Douglas had become the foremost dramatic leader of the Democratic Party, speaking, as he said, for “Young America” as against “Old Fogies,” meaning Cass, Buchanan and other figures of hesitation. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years

Quotes: Objectives; Objectivity. Obscenity. Obscurity. Obsession. Obstructions. Occupation.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Objectives
Military action has to have political objectives.
Objectives 360 JFK: The paper indicates no relationship between the proposed military action and larger political objectives. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

Objectivity
Passionate participant cannot be objective.
Objectivity 6 JFK: An impassioned participant cannot be an objective observer. Sorenson, Kennedy

Obscenity
Epithets are not obscene; tolerance of inhumanity by those in power is genuinely obscene.
Obscenity 427 [About Lenny Bruce]: Bruce was saying that individual foul epithets were not obscene; it was the tolerance of all kinds of inhumanity by people in power which was genuinely obscene. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.

Obscurity
It seems deep because it is obscure.
Obscurity in meaning 502 They will conclude that there is depth to my meaning because of the obscurity. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Obsession
I wish there were a cure for obsession.
Obsession 325 Johnson: I wish there were some cure…for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.

He has only one idea, and it is wrong.
Obsession 393 Johnson: That fellow seems to me to possess one idea, and that is a wrong one. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.

Obstructions
Any time is the right time if we know what to do with it.
Obstructions 68 This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Emerson, The American Scholar.

Occupation
Our occupations tend to be funny in nature.
Occupation 520 Most of our occupations smack of comedy. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Quotes: Novel. November. Nuclear Holocaust.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Novel
Each novel is a new, self-contained world.
Novel 273 As the French novelist François Mauriac has remarked, each great novel is a separate and distinct world operating under its own laws with a flora and fauna totally its own. Eiseley, The Star Thrower

Each element in a novel is interrelated.
Novel 233 John Irving quoting D.H. Lawrence: The novel is the highest example of subtle interrelatedness that man has discovered. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook

Novels are a form of new experience.
Novel 354 Bernard Malamud: The human race needs the novel[;] we need all the experience we can get. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook

Novels dealt with probability; romances with legend.
Novel romance legend 352 …tried hard to define the differences between the novel proper and the romance…the novel aimed at “a very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, but to the probable and ordinary course of man’s experience”…a romance because…it dealt with a legend…. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.

November
I wish he were here to put November in perspective for us.
November xiii I wish he [Ted Browning] were here to put it in perspective for us. D. Thomas, Editor, The Kennett Paper. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.

Nuclear Holocaust
A nuclear holocaust would be the equivalent of five hundred WWII’s.
Nuclear Holocaust 597 When that day comes, and there is a massive exchange, then that is the end, because you are talking about…150 million fatalities in the first eighteen hours”…the equivalent for this country of five hundred World War II’s in less than a day. Sorenson, Kennedy

In the era of nuclear war, misjudgment on either side could produce more devastation than all the wars in history.
Nuclear war 364 In the thermonuclear age, any misjudgment on either side about the intentions of the other could rain more devastation in several hours than has been wrought in all the wars of human history. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

Khrushchev: England, could be destroyed by only six nuclear bombs, France by eight.
Nuclear war 420 Khrushchev: In early July…remarked to the British Ambassador in his genial way that it would take only six nuclear bombs to destroy England, eight to destroy France. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

Khrushchev boasted of detonating a bomb 2500 times bigger than the one that killed 100,000 in Hiroshima and 5 times larger than the total of all explosives in all wars in human history.
Nuclear war 426 Soon [Khrushchev] was boasting to the Communist 22nd Congress of his intention to detonate a 50-megaton bomb—2500 times bigger than the one which had killed 100,000 people at Hiroshima and five times larger than the total of all high explosives used in all the wars in human history. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

Quotes: Necessity. Negotiation. Nemesis. Neurosis. New England. News. Night. Nonchalance. Nonconformist. North and South. Nostalgia.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Necessity
Necessity is beautiful.
Necessity 967 Let us build altars to the Beautiful Necessity. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Fate.

Negotiation
Negotiation leaves everyone disappointed.
Negotiation 89 JFK: A truly just solution will leave every nation somewhat disappointed. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

Never corner an opponent; always let him save face.
Negotiation 108 Liddell Hart: Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save his face. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

After the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK tried to restore communication with his opponent and to find areas on which they could agree.
Negotiation 811 So his [Kennedy’s] first instinct after the missile crisis had been to restore communication with his adversary and resume the search for areas of common interest. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

True negotiations are not about victory or defeat.
Negotiation 581 JFK: “Negotiations…are not a contest spelling victory or defeat.” Sorenson, Kennedy

Orientals save face of individuals, Westerners, institutions.
Negotiation 230 Orientals must save the “face” of individuals; Anglo-Saxons must save the face of institutions. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.

He came up on his opponent quietly.
Negotiation, metaphor 794 As John Randolph said of Van Buren, he ‘rowed to his object with muffled oars.’ Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

The mediator must be prepared to make everyone mad if it means progress.
Negotiations 654 JFK: The role of the mediator is not a happy one; we are prepared to have everybody mad if it makes some progress. Sorenson, Kennedy

Nemesis
Nemesis lets no offense pass unpunished.
Nemesis 292 ...that ancient doctrine of Nemesis, who keeps watch in the universe, and lets no offense go unchastised. Emerson, Compensation.

Neurosis
People who are neurotic go from doctor to doctor trying to find cures for what is not wrong with them.
Neurosis 107 There is a wandering group of neurotics in every city, running to each new doctor in the hopes of miracle cures for non-existent illnesses…thousands of bright, healthy men and women who need an illness, need a pain. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).


New England
New England is the land of schools.
New England 29 …set out for New England, the land of schools. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.

News
All news is gossip and people who write it gossip mongers.
News 397 …all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Thoreau, Walden.

Most news could have been written twelve years ago and twelve years in the future.
News 397 …news which I seriously think a ready wit might write a twelvemonth or twelve years beforehand with sufficient accuracy. Thoreau, Walden.

Reading a newspaper 50 years old is not much different from reading the newspaper today.
Newspapers 71 J.P. Donleavy: Indeed, in Ireland, to read a local paper that’s 50 years old is not much different than reading today’s. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook

Night
Modern civilization is out of touch with the night.
Night 168 Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The experience of night is almost a religious emotion.
Night 176 Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

Impressions of London streets at night.
Nighttime 53 [London streets in the evenings]: …the heavy lazy mist, which hangs over every object, makes the gas lamps look brighter, and the brilliantly-lighted shops more splendid, from the contrast they present to the darkness around. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

On nights like this, people at home make themselves snug and the envy of those who pass outside.
Nighttime 53 All the people who are at home on such a night as this, seem disposed to make themselves as snug and comfortable as possible; and the passengers in the streets have excellent reason to envy the fortunate individuals who are seated by their own firesides. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

Nonchalance
Maintaining my nonchalance costs me.
Nonchalance 200 I put down to the account of my expenses what it costs me to nourish and maintain my nonchalance Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Nonconformist
To be a man, one must be a nonconformist.
Nonconformist 261 Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. Emerson, Self-Reliance.

North and South
The North hungers for truth, the South for beauty.
North and South 169 [Spinoza] had the northern hunger for truth rather than the southern lust for beauty. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.

Nostalgia
In the past, days were longer and slower.
Nostalgia 137 But Fielding lived when the days were longer…when summer afternoons were spacious, and the clock ticked slowly in the winter evenings. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Quotes: Nazis

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows. Note: The quotes in this blog on the topic of "Nazism" are some of the most graphic statements on the inhuman treatment of innocent people in the history of civilization. Readers should be forewarned.

Nazis
Nazi actions had not been all that different from the American slaughter of the Indians.
Nazi defense 319 Ribbentrop thought that the German actions had not been all that different from American and the British: “Haven’t you heard about how the Americans slaughtered the Indians…an inferior race too?” Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Nazi actions were not that different from the actions of the British during the Boer War.
Nazi defense 319 The Boer War between Dutch settlers and the British colonists in South Africa had evolved into guerrilla warfare between 1899 and 1902…British cleared the countryside and herded 120,000 women and children into concentration camps…approximately 20,000 died from disease and neglect. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Hoss did not commit the murders at Auschwitz; he was simply the executioner.
Nazi defense 424 But that murder [Auschwitz] was not committed by Hoss; Hoss was merely the executioner. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The Nazis had simply been following the principles of Henry Ford’s efficiency engineering.
Nazi defense 430 In demanding that workers “must be fed, housed, and treated in such a way that with the least possible effort the greatest possible results will be achieved,” Sauckel claimed, on the witness stand, he had merely been following the principles of Henry Ford’s efficiency engineering. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The Nazi official claimed he worked in Czechoslovakia because he was a moderating influence.
Nazi official’s defense 450 Neurath claimed…that he had…retained his position in Czechoslovakia as long as possible in order to provide a moderating influence. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The Nazis targeted the clergy, aristocracy, intelligentsia and Jews in order to eliminate any vestige of Polish nationalism.
Nazism 189 Hitler: …to break all elements of the Polish will to resist[,] it is especially necessary to eliminate the clergy, the aristocracy, the intelligentsia and the Jews…all…to be expelled from the four westernmost provinces of Poland, which were to be annexed to Germany[;] the most prominent and vigorous of the men were to be exterminated so as to extirpate all nationalism and ethnic identity, and leave the masses without leadership. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Personal freedom must be sacrificed to preserving the race.
Nazism 205 Mein Kampf: The right of personal freedom recedes before the duty to preserve the race. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Sick people contaminate the healthy people, so eliminate them.
Nazism 205 Mein Kampf: It is a half measure to let incurably sick people steadily contaminate the remaining healthy ones. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

When people resisted, the Nazis increased the terror.
Nazism 278 Under Hitler’s directives, the only German reaction to resistance was to intensify terror. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

How could Germany with its Christian and humanistic heritage return to such primitive barbarism?
Nazism 285 Francois de Menthon: How can one explain how Germany, fertilized through the centuries by classic antiquity and Christianity, by the ideals of liberty, equality, and social justice, by the common heritage of western humanism to which she had brought such noble and precious contributions, could have come to this astonishing return to primitive barbarism? Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Germany’s primitive passions had been aroused and led to atrocities.
Nazism 318 DuBost: Evil masters came who awakened its [Germany’s] primitive passions and made possible the atrocities which I have described to you. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The Nazis’ crime was their policy of exterminating innocent people.
Nazism 318 DuBost: Their crime is that they conceived and achieved, as an instrument of government, a policy of terrorism toward the whole of the subjugated nations and toward their own people; their crime is that they pursued, as an end in itself, a policy of extermination of entire categories of innocent citizens…[which] alone would suffice to determine capital punishment. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Hess: Hitler, the greatest son ever brought forth upon the earth.
Nazism 478 Hess: I was permitted to work for many years of my life under the greatest son whom my people have brought forth in its thousand-year history. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

In Nuremberg only a small number of those responsible for Nazi actions were tried; Nazi responsibility also lay with hundreds of decision-makers, thousands of deputies and tens of thousands of the rank and file.
Nazism 516 From the evidence presented, it was clear that beyond the twenty-one men tried, decision-makers and perpetrators of major criminal acts ranged into the hundreds, their deputies into the thousands, and the rank and file directly involved into the tens of thousands. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

In the future, the Nazi experience will never be forgotten.
Nazism 523 Karl S. Bader: Nobody who considers the years 1933 to 1945 will in future time be able to pass by this material, tremendous in its extent and value for the perception of the errors of man. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Nazi accounting not for human beings but for deliveries of carcasses.
Nazism and bureaucracy 259 But the episode revealed the inhuman banality of the perpetrators of the Final Solution—Eichmann had not thought in terms of human beings, of despair and agony, terror and torture, but of Judenmateriel: So and so many Jewish carcasses that he had contracted to deliver. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Nazi “problems” can only be resolved with “ruthless severity.”
Nazism and decision making 268 Bormann and Goebbels: It lies in the very nature of these problems, which in part are very difficult, that they can be solved only with ruthless severity. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

According to the Nazis, it is more difficult to “discipline” “obstructive populations” than to fight the war.
Nazism and discipline 212 Himmler: Where we had to have the toughness…to shoot thousands of leading Poles…much easier to go into combat than to suppress an obstructive population…or to carry out executions, or to haul away people, or to evict crying and hysterical women. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Nazi “character”: To remain “decent” people when we have been responsible for thousands of corpses lying side by side, that is what it means to be “hard,” a glorious page in our history.
Nazism and discipline 269 Himmler: Most of you must know what it means when a hundred corpses are lying side by side, or five hundred, or a thousand [but] to have stuck it out and at the same time remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard…a page of glory in our history…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Nazi euphemism: We are not conquering people, but agriculturally necessary space.
Nazism and doublespeak 136 Hitler: It is not a case of conquering people, but of conquering agriculturally useful space. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Nazi economics: “Worthless” people cost far more than average laborers and civil servants; it is not economically sound to support them.
Nazism and economics 205 A German medical economist pointed out, in an article entitled “The Fight Against Degeneration,” that the care of a deaf-mute or cripple cost 6 marks a day, that of a reform school inmate 4.85 marks, and that of a mentally ill or deficient person 4.5 marks…average earnings of a laborer…only 2.5 marks and those of a civil servant 4 marks daily…state spends far more for the existence of these actually worthless compatriots than for the salary of a healthy man…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The Nazi reason for euthanasia is to relieve people of their suffering.
Nazism and euthanasia 207 The reason [for euthanasia] was to make room for sick soldiers, but otherwise also the reason was to relieve these people from their suffering. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Euthanasia is necessary because efficient nations have no room for weak and frail people.
Nazism and euthanasia 209 Bishop Wurm to Frick: the basis for this practice [euthanasia exterminations] seems to be the opinion that in an efficient nation there is no room for weak and frail people. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The Nazi extermination “program” showed how fragmenting authority and tasks led to an efficient system for murder.
Nazism and extermination 210 The euthanasia program, serving as the prototype for the extermination of millions that was to follow, demonstrated how, through fragmentation of authority and tasks, it was possible to fashion a murder machine. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The unsightly shooting of women and children led to use of the gas chambers.
Nazism and extermination 262 The drawbacks and difficulties of shooting women and children had become evident…and led to the invention of the gas vans. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The great conquerors of history are not viewed as murderers.
Nazism and history 204 Goering: Don’t forget that the great conquerors of history are not seen as murderers-Genghis Khan, Peter the Great, Frederick the Great…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Following orders was not illegal; they had sworn obedience to the people who gave the orders.
Nazism and legality 238 Ohlendorf: Since the order was issued by the superior authorities, the question of legality could not arise…for they had sworn obedience to the people who had issued the orders. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

The priests’ job is to keep Poles quiet.
Nazism and religion 213 Frank: the task of the priest is to keep the Poles quiet, stupid, and dull-witted. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Although thousands were responsible, they considered themselves cogs in the machine and the machine was responsible.
Nazism and responsibility 21 Thousands of people were involved, but each considered himself nothing but a cog in the machine and reasoned that it was the machine, not he, that was responsible. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Hitler had no trouble finding physicians and medical personnel to carry out his decisions.
Nazism and the Professions 205 As was the case throughout the Nazi regime in all the various professions, Hitler had no difficulty finding doctors, nurses, and hospitals to execute his designs. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

Quotes: Nature.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Nature
Only when man communes with nature at rare moments is he no longer solitary.
Nature 37 Only in acts of inarticulate compassion, in rare and hidden moments of communion with nature, does man briefly escape his solitary destiny. Eiseley, The Star Thrower.

Nature does not know individual plants but only vegetable life.
Nature 216 Emerson: “[Nature] knows neither palm nor oak, but only vegetable life, which sprouts into forests and festoons the globe.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower

I was proudest when a sparrow alighted on my shoulder while I was gardening.
Nature 541 I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. Thoreau, Walden.

A golden day in August when everything seemed to revive.
Nature 320 …a golden afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of life, that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.

Nature is economical with its checks and balances of competing life.
Nature 221 The economy of nature, its checks and balances, its measurements of competing life—all this is its great marvel and has an ethic of its own. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The pastoral fallacy is looking at earth, not as a place for digging and plowing, but as a paradise.
Nature 112 ...when the men of the Renaissance looked at the countryside it was not as a place of plowing and digging, but as a kind of earthly paradise...awareness of nature is associated with the desire to escape and with hope of a better life...the pastoral fallacy.... Clark, Civilization.

The word “nature” has many meanings.
Nature 269 It’s said that one can attach fifty-two different meanings to the word ‘nature.’ Clark, Civilization.

With the rise and retreat of waves, Rousseau said he lost all sense of individuality and became one with nature.
Nature 272 In listening to the flux and reflux of the waves, [Rousseau] tells us, he became completely at one with nature, lost all consciousness of an independent self, all painful memories of the past or anxieties about the future, everything except the sense of being. Clark, Civilization.

Total immersion in nature means losing identity in the whole and gaining an intense consciousness of being.
Nature 291 Total immersion: this is the ultimate reason why the love of nature has been for so long accepted as a religion…a means by which we can lose our identity in the whole and gain thereby a more intense consciousness of being. Clark, Civilization.

Nature is hidden, overcome but seldom extinguished.
Nature 113 F. Bacon: “Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.

One can only command nature by obeying it.
Nature 120 F. Bacon: Nature cannot be commanded, except by being obeyed. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.

Highlights of the seasons.
Nature 54 [Browning’s 15 great natural events of the year: skunk cabbage blooming; return of red-winged blackbird; song of spring peepers; dogwood blooming; leaf burst; arrival of spring warblers; song of the wood thrush; night sky: the rising of the summer triangle; bloom of summer meadow wild flowers; swallows gathered on telephone wires; katydid singing; beginning of hawk migration; fall color at peak; night sky: rising of Orion the Hunter; first snow fall of winter; pond freezes over.] Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.

Why does the cicada awaken every 17 years?
Nature 90 What makes the cicada awake after 17 years? Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.

In nature, metamorphosis is an enduring principle.
Nature 101 Metamorphosis is not an isolated event but an enduring principle. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.

Sights and sounds of the seasons.
Nature 126 …blockbuster, hawk-lifting cold fronts, warm buttery October days, midnight cannonball thunderstorms. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.

If you live outdoors, inanimate things take on personality.
Nature 104 “I think,” said Kate, “that the more one lives out of doors the more personality there seems to be in what we call inanimate things.” Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.

A day is not entirely lost if you have spent some time observing some thing in nature.
Nature 542 It seems as if the day was not wholly profane, in which we have given heed to some natural object. Emerson, Nature, Second Series.

Nature arms and equips natural things to survive, but arms and equips other things to destroy it.
Nature 547 She [Nature] arms and equips an animal to find its place and living in the earth, and, at the same time, she arms and equips another animal to destroy it. Emerson, Nature, Second Series.

The unknowing eye does not see the life within a natural object.
Nature 154 The unknowing eye saw the stillness and missed the vortex of life within. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.

Trees in summer release more water than is in a pond.
Nature 171 In one summer, the trees would release more water than was contained in the pond. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.

Flying male ants fell dead after mating with the female.
Nature 203 Later that day…male [flying] ants fell steadily from the sky, dying and dead…their lives…ended the moment they mated with the flying females…. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.

The fallen leaves awaken my grief.
Nature 394 But every leaf awakens my grief,/ As it lieth beneath the tree. Dickens, Pickwick.

The power of each portion of a plant to help the other portions is life; intensity of life is intensity of helpfulness.
Nature and morality 285 Ruskin: the power which causes the several portions of a plant to help each other we call life; intensity of life is also intensity of helpfulness; the ceasing of this help is what we call corruption…a moral at least as convincing as most of those that can be drawn from Holy Writ. Clark, Civilization.

The line where sky and sea meet each other symbolizes harmony.
Nature and symbol 287 And [Turner] was particularly fascinated by the line where the sky and the sea join each other, that mingling of the elements which seems, by its harmony of tone, to lead to a general reconciliation of opposites. Clark, Civilization.

Nature teaches, but what it teaches is often obscure.
Nature teaches 121 Nature teaches, though what it teaches is often hidden and obscure. Eiseley, The Star Thrower.

The only way to know the nature of birds is to see them in flight.
Nature, birds 98 …no one really knows a bird until he has seen it in flight. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

Man sees only a moment in the symphony of nature’s creation.
Nature, creation 220 So near is man to the creative pageant, so much a part is he of the endless and incredible experiment, that any glimpse he may have will be but the revelation of a moment, a solitary note heard in a symphony…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

Geese flying at sunset with their musical bell-like cry.
Nature, geese 116 …a flock of geese flying over the meadows along the rift of dying, golden light, their great wings beating with a slow and solemn beauty, their musical bell-like cry…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

In the world of winter, the tracks of insects on the dunes are no longer visible.
Nature, insects 65 That multiplicity of insect tracks, those fantastic ribbons which grasshoppers, promenading flies, spiders, and beetles printed on the dunes as they went about their hungry and mysterious purposes, have come to an end in this world [of winter]…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The trillions of intense lives of insects, created for no apparent purpose, except, perhaps for a sound or a color.
Nature, insects 65 Those trillions of unaccountable lives [insects], those crawling, buzzing intense presences which nature created to fulfill some unknown purpose or perhaps simply to satisfy a whim for a certain sound or a moment of exquisite color…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

We fail to appreciate that Insects contribute to the symphony of natural sounds.
Nature, insects 65 As I muse here, it occurs to me that we are not sufficiently grateful for the great symphony of natural sound which insects add to the natural scene…all those little fiddles in the grass, all those cricket pipes, those delicate flutes…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The many sounds of the ocean.
Nature, ocean 43 The sea has many voices…hollow boomings…heavy roarings, great watery tumblings and tramplings, long hissing seethes, sharp, rifle-shot reports, splashes, whispers, the grinding undertone of stones, and sometimes vocal sounds that might be the half-heard talk of people in the sea. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The rhythm of the ocean changes.
Nature, ocean 44 [The ocean]…constantly changing its tempo, its pitch, its accent, and its rhythm, being now loud and thundering, now almost placid, now furious, now grave and solemn-slow, now a simple measure, now a rhythm monstrous with a sense of purpose and elemental will. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

Away from the beach, the sounds of the surf meld into a distant cannonade.
Nature, ocean 47 Away from the beach, the various sounds of the surf melt into one great thundering symphonic roar…an endless, distant, elemental cannonade. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The toppling of ocean waves.
Nature, ocean 53 Toppling over and hurled ahead, the wave crashes, its mass of glinting blue falling down in a confusion of seething, splendid white, the tumbling water rebounding from the sand to a height almost always a little above that of the original crest. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The sound of the ocean at night.
Nature, ocean 175 The beach at night has a voice all its own, a sound in fullest harmony with its spirit and mood—with its little, dry noise of sand forever moving, with its solemn, over spilling, rhythmic seas, with its eternity of stars that sometimes seem to hang down like lamps from the high heavens—and that sound the piping of a bird. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

Nature is full of rhythm.
Nature, rhythm 366 Spencer: All nature is rhythmical, from the pulsations of heat to the vibrations of the violin strings; from the undulations of light, heat and sound to the tides of the sea; from the periodicities of sex to the periodicities of planets and comets and stars; from the alternation of night and day to the succession of the seasons, and perhaps to the rhythms of climactic change; from the oscillations of molecules to the rise and fall of nations and the birth and death of stars. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.

The smells of nature.
Nature, smells 189 I like a good smell—the smell of a freshly ploughed field on a warm morning after a night of April rain, the clove-like aroma of our wild Cape Cod pinks, the morning perfume of lilacs showery with dew, the good reek of hot salt grass and low tide blowing from these meadows late on summer afternoons. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The elemental sounds of nature.
Nature, sounds 43 The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The sun is a natural drama.
Nature, sun 59 We lose a great deal, I think, when we lose this sense and feeling for the sun…the adventure of the sun is the great natural drama by which we live…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

The sounds of a thunderstorm.
Nature, thunderstorm 186 Now came flash after stabbing flash amid a roaring of rain, and heavy thunder that rolled on till its last echoes were swallowed up in vast detonations which jarred the walls. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.

Quotes: Nabokov. Names. National Socialism. Nationalities. Native Americans.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Nabokov
Lolita is an account of the author’s love for the English language.
Nabokov 288 After Olympia Press in Paris, published the book [Lolita], an American critic suggested that Lolita was the record of my love affair with the romantic novel...substitution [of] “English language” for “romantic novel” would make this elegant formula more correct. Nabokov, Lolita.

Names
Careful what names you give to kids; they’ll grow up to fit them; “John” will be a different kid from “Rudolph.”
Names 172 John Gardner: If you name a kid John, he’ll grow up a different kid than if you named him Rudolph. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook

National Socialism
National Socialism’s successes weakened any possible opposition.
National Socialism 398 The next three years the regime went from one success to another, which weakened the ranks of the opposition and made any counteraction hopeless. Bracher, The German Dictatorship

National Socialism’s personnel: “Desk Criminals.”
National Socialist 286 The National Socialist elite: “Desk criminals.” Bracher, The German Dictatorship

Nationalities
In France, everybody thinks of himself as Napoleon; in Italy, everybody thinks he’s Christ.
Nationalities 247 I like France, where everybody thinks he’s Napoleon—down here [Italy] everybody thinks he’s Christ. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.

In England you can do it if it’s not specifically forbidden; in Germany you can’t do it unless it is specifically allowed.
Nationalities 40 …in England everything is allowed except what is specifically forbidden; in Germany everything is forbidden except what is specifically allowed. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).

The Irish are fair; they never speak well of one another.
Nationalities 522 Johnson: The Irish are a fair people; --they never speak well of one another. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.

The French are conceited because they think they are irresistible.
Nationalities iii A Frenchman’s conceit springs from his belief that mentally and physically he is irresistibly fascinating both to men and women. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

Englishmen think they always know the correct thing to do and that everything they do is right.
Nationalities iii The Englishman’s self assurance comes from being a citizen of the best-organized kingdom in the world, and because as an Englishman he always knows what is the correct thing to do, and that everything he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly right. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

Italians are excitable, forgetting themselves and others.
Nationalities iii An Italian is conceited because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

Russians are conceited because they don’t know anything and don’t want to know anything.
Nationalities iii A Russian is conceited because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that it is possible to know anything completely. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

Germans are conceited because they think they have the truth in science and that is absolute truth.
Nationalities iii A conceited German is the worst of them all…because he imagines that he possesses the truth in science…which for him is absolute truth. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

Native Americans
It is said of North American Indians that if the torture abates, they will sleep until the fire is reapplied.
Native Americans 179 …it is mentioned of the North American Indians, when at the stake of torture, that on the least intermission of agony, they will sleep until the fire is applied to awaken them. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.