It is not when a man is at the end of his life, but when a man is at the end of his profession, that his soul shows itself.
Dante is the first Christian poet, the first one whose whole system of thought is colored by a pure Christian theology. But the poem comes nearer to us than this. It is there real history of a brother...
'Do not ask what brings Dante to man but what brings man to Dante-to personally enter his sphere, though it is forever severe and unforgiving.'
These writers take the essence of every person around them, turn them into books and stories without permission or even a simple thank-you, and want all the credit and glory for themselves.
I prefer the society of one faithful person to an association of rapid talkers, who more than anything else seek admiration from one another.
I never fully realized how much a New England birth in itself was worth, but I am happy that that was my lot. I have felt it so keenly these last few days. Dear old New England, with all her sternness...
He worshipped at the temple of her intellect and I believe it was a comfort to him to know that she left our world with it still shining.
E. C. FERGINS
Why did nature not ask my advice about my features?
I was looking for something else in books. I could not really say what, but I think I can say why: a notion started in my own brain was probably wrong, but an answer read in a work of literature would...
How odd it must be to go through life believing that a book is a book.
When Christina would stop to examine an interesting insect or patch of moss, Gabriel would stand in an impatient pose and shrug, not seeing what was at all interesting about it. Sometimes when writing...
Shakespeare brings us to know ourselves. Dante, with his dissection of all others, bids us to know one another.
Longfellow smiled. A great part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, my dear Lowell, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
Every scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Second, they say it has been discovered before. Last, they say they always believed it.
Money is good, but it is not all about a man. You will have successes and reversals, but remember it is your reaction to each of them that counts for your character.
A man was leaning idly against an elm. ... The man, who towered over the poet even at his slanting angle, too old for a student and too worn for a faculty member, stared at him with the familiar, insa...
That bookshops will one day disappear altogether and be replaced by mail order, that eventually books themselves would be finally and fully buried by that awful foe, so much cheaper and easier to carr...
When you ask one friend to dine, give him your best wine. When you ask two, the second best will do.
I do not seek the mantle of genius. I am an appreciator, an observer, a preposition, and content in that, and that's me in a nutshell.