Quotes: Birds.

The bold-face print is either an interpretation of the quote that follows or the quote itself without interpretation.

Birds
Birds 830 A crow is dressed gravely in black, but he is not religious, rather a thief and probably an infidel too. "A crow, however, has no real pretensions to religion, in spite of his gravity of mien and black attire; he is certainly a thief, and probably an infidel." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Birds 831 "Their [the birds’] little bodies are as busy as their voices; they are in constant flutter and restlessness." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Birds 831 Blackbirds congregate in tree-tops and make noises like a turbulent political meeting. "The black birds…are the noisiest of all our feathered citizens…congregate in contiguous tree-tops and vociferate with all the clamor and confusion of a turbulent political meeting." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Birds 831 "We hear them [the birds] saying their melodious prayers, at morning’s blush and eventide." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Birds 47 "The barred owl…usually utters a nine-note series of hoots that has been aptly put into the words, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 10 "Maybe the blue jays don’t migrate to Georgia and points south because they know how handsome they are against a snowy background." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 10 "…the jay often looks like a fat, pompous alderman." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 14 "And the great horned owl hoots gruffly, then hunts on broad, silent wings, sharp-taloned as the wind, quiet as the brittle cold." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 15 [January]. "The blue jays look more cleanly blue and white now than at any other time of the year, and the cardinals are spectacular." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 17 "…the sight of a cardinal against a snowy landscape is spectacular." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 23 "The owl is, in man’s terms, a useful but not a lovable bird." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 23 The owl is a winter night's bird. "[The owl] is a bird of the cold winter night, and if its voice makes the moon-shadows quiver, that too is part of winter." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 40 "He [the jay] insists on eating alone, threatening sparrow, chickadee, and titmouse with baleful eye and rapier beak." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 45 "And his [the cardinal’s] whistle is like nothing else in birddom." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 49 "The chickadee has a scientific name twice as big as he is, parus atricapillus…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 50 "All birds live at high speed physiologically… [the chickadee’s] tiny heart beats 500 times a minute when he is asleep and doubles that rate when he is awake and active." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 50 "The chickadee…a mere fleck of feathered life…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 63 "Crows have no song, but their calls are less raucous and less defiant now as they watch the weather in the naked treetops." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 65 Migrant robins can tell by the average day-long temperature when to return north. "…migrant robins…have an uncanny temperature sense, almost never appearing before the average twenty-four-hour temperature is at least thirty-five degrees." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 73 "Birds obviously sometimes sing merely because they feel like singing." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 83 March. "A cardinal…whistles imperiously…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 83 March. "Four black ducks skim the naked tree tops, wings swiftly beating, necks outstretched, silent as shadows." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 93 April. "The geese are on the wing…like small dogs yelping in the far distance…a penciled V against the sky…gabbling in the dusk." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 93 April. "The wild goose…is the epitome of wanderlust, limitless horizons, and distant travel." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 93 April. "…every spring when the wild geese come gabbling north again." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 95 April. "[Migrating robins] can easily fly 250 miles south in a day, find more hospitable weather and wait out the storm." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 101 April. "A flock of grackles is an offense to the ear…likened…to…a fleet of squeaky wheel barrows…rusty gate hinges, thousands of rusty gate hinges." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 101 "The very name “grackle” goes back in origin to European words meaning 'croak' and 'garrulous.' ” Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 103 We know how birds migrate but not why. "We now know far more about [migration] than ever before, but most of our knowledge is about how rather than why, the way birds migrate rather than their reasons." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 127 "[The thrasher]…will spend hours in a tall treetop proclaiming the goodness of life." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 136 "Soon after first light the birds begin to celebrate the dawn, and those who would know birdsong at its best are awake and listening." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 138 "Birds…cramming their crops with insect fare, doing a better job of protecting plants from insect pests than any pesticide every invented." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 141 Birds have personalities. "The robin is sedate, the oriole is a serious fellow, the blue jay is a blustering egocentric…the catbird is a quick-witted entertainer who seems to find life a vastly amusing enterprise." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 144 The barn swallow and the poetry of flight. "For sheer poetry of flight the barn swallow unquestionably deserves the laurel…a kind of lyric flight that makes one understand the meaning of exquisite grace." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 144 "But they [chimney swifts] fairly twinkle in flight, swooping, dodging, racing…they often chitter as they fly, almost as though laughing at their astonishing performance." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 144 Chimney swifts seem to be discovering flight for the first time. "[Chimney swifts]…make flight seem like a fresh discovery, a talent never before known." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 144 Chimney swifts improvise as they fly. "You can predict the patterns of swallows, like a perfect ballet; but the swifts improvise from moment to moment as though too exuberant to be confined by patterns…exultant, practically jubilant at being alive and a-wing…celebrate the miracle of flight." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 Birdsong is best heard in the morning and evening, not during the heat of day. "The chorus of birdsong diminishes, as always when hot days come, though it still is heard in the cool of morning and evening." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A brown thrasher feeds its nestlings as many as 6,000 insects a day." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A pair of barn swallows catches and feeds 1,000 leaf hoppers to its young in one day." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A house wren feeds 500 spiders and small caterpillars to her nestful in one afternoon." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A Baltimore oriole takes as many as 100 caterpillars to her woven pouch of a nest in one hour." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A yellow-shafted flicker will dispose of 5,000 ants between noon and sundown." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "English sparrows eat Japanese beetles by the thousand and feed as many more to their young." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 174 Hummingbirds. "[The ruby-throated hummingbird]…not much bigger than a bumble bee, its nest half the size of a walnut shell, its eggs…no bigger than fat garden peas…lives on nectar and miniature insects…its annual migration to Mexico…crosses the Gulf of Mexico, flying some 500 miles nonstop." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 201 "…remote, sad call of a mourning dove." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 234 August. "The swallows gave up on the weather several weeks ago, held their conference on rural telephone lines and headed south." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 255 September. "…the flickers are flocking." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 281 "…the wild goose seems to typify the restless spirit of autumn." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 281 "…the garrulousness of geese…in the air or on the water, it chatters and gabbles, gossips and confers." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

51. Birds 281 October. The flight and landing of the geese. "Geese…you hear the distant clamor…seems to echo from the whole sky…you look up, searching, and at last you see the penciled V, high against the blue, arrowing southward…like the distant yapping of small dogs…coming in over a hilltop, a dark cloud to them, to circle once and then drop, long necks outstretched, wings cupped, feet outthrust, to land in a rush of spray." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 294 October. Crow conventions. "The crows attend to the big, important matters such as crow conventions and long, loud discussions…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 295 The strutting jay. "[The jay] can strut sitting still." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 339 "...birds are independence itself." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 346 The nuthatch. "Of all the winter birds the clown of the lot is the nuthatch...doesn’t know that a bird can’t go down a tree trunk head-first...no variation, nothing approaching a melody: just “yark, yark, yark,” always in the same key, always the same note...not quarrelsome, or noisy, or pilfering...a good neighbor, and a welcome winter guest, and he eats his full share of noxious bugs the year round." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 352 December. "On a cold day, a chickadee needs its own weight in food to keep the inner fires burning." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 352 Chickadee. "...this bird is more than the sum of its anatomical parts...a lively spark of personality...can be a ham actor, a bully, a wheedler, and acrobat...loves a human audience and comes to the dooryard feeder as much for companionship as for a snack...an entertainer, it is all pro, the feathered song-and-dance performer who gets, and deserves, top billing on the winter circuit of the dooryard feeders." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Quotes: Benefactor. Bible. Biography.

The bold-face print is either an interpretation of the quote that follows or the quote without interpretation.

Benefactor
Benefactor 94 "There is a hook in every benefit, that sticks in his jaws that takes that benefit, and draws him whither the benefactor will." Donne. 1625. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Bible
Bible 903 The Bible blotted out falsehoods and worn-out truths. "Upon the blazing heap of falsehood and worn-out truth—things that the earth had never needed, or had ceased to need, or had grown childishly weary of—fell the ponderous church-Bible…there, likewise, fell the family Bible, which the long-buried patriarch had read to his children—in prosperity or sorrow, by the fireside, and in the summer-shade of trees…." Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”

Bible 11 Why did God prefer Abel's sacrifice to Cain's? "Nobody has ever been able to understand why God preferred Abel’s sacrifice to that of Cain." Leo Shestov. 1905. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Bible 32 Why is the Bible called "The Good Book"? "The Good Book"--one of the most remarkable euphemisms ever coined." Ashley Montagu. Portable Curmudgeon.

Bible 32 I'm bothered by the parts of the Bible I do understand. "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand." Mark Twain. Portable Curmudgeon.

Bible 32 The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and enemies, probably the same people. "The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people." G. K. Chesterton. Portable Curmudgeon.

Bible 32 The ignorant are the ones who are inspired by reading the Bible. "The inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it." Robert G. Ingersoll. Portable Curmudgeon.

Bible 95 W.C. Fields to visitor, who, during his last illness, caught him reading the Bible: “Just looking for loopholes.” Portable Curmudgeon.

Biography
Biography 69 We can learn something useful about life from any biography. "I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. Samuel Johnson." “Dignity and Uses of Biography.” 1750. Gross, ed. Essays.

Biography 71 The incidents that give excellence to biographies are the ones that are forgotten. "For the incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory and are rarely transmitted by tradition." Samuel Johnson. “Dignity and Uses of Biography.” 1750. Gross, ed. Essays.

Quotes: Bats. Beauty. Bees. Beginnings. Belief.

The bold-face print is either an interpretation of the quote or the quote without interpretation.

Bats
Bats 172 Visualizing bats. "The bats are fluttery, shadowy; they trick the eye, deceive the watcher, as they swoop into sight and vanish utterly…play hide and seek with the darkness." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Beauty
Beauty 747 Beauty is for beauty's sake. "There is still beauty of earth, sea, and sky, for beauty’s sake." Hawthorne: “The New Adam and Eve”

Beauty 826 "But beauty is never a delusion…." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Beauty 827 "The beautiful should live forever…." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Beauty 914 Who understands beauty? "Only get rid altogether of your nonsensical trash about the beautiful—which I or nobody else, nor yourself to boot, could never understand—only free yourself of that, and your success in life is as sure as daylight." Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Beauty 916 The artifact only symbolizes the idea of beauty. "But would the beautiful idea ever be yielded to his hand, like the butterfly that symbolized it?" Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Beauty 133 "Beauty is pride." Lope de Vega. Spanish. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Beauty 151 "Beauty is a flower, fame a breath." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Bees
Bees 613 Absorbed in the life of bees. "He kept bees, and told me he loved to sit for whole hours by the hives, watching the labors of the insects, and soothed by the hum with which they filled the air." Hawthorne: “Jonathan Cilley”

Bees 162 Bumblebees. "Behold the bumblebee, that big, improbable black and gold insect that shouldn’t be able to fly but does…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Bees 163 "Man could do worse than ponder the bumblebees, especially on a sunny June afternoon." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Beginnings
Beginnings 17 "Every beginning is cheerful." Goethe. Ger. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Belief
Belief 1291 Tame a wild creature and it loves you. "Thus it always is with winged horses, and with all such wild and solitary creatures; if you can catch and overcome them, it is the surest way to win their love." “The Chimera” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Belief 31 It is folly to believe what is obviously not true, but most of us do it. "The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true…the chief occupation of mankind. H. L. Mencken. Portable Curmudgeon.

Belief 199 No system will control human beliefs. "…that human beliefs, like all other natural growths, elude the barriers of a system." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Belief 214 Turn away a blessing and it is theirs who find it. Silas: "God gave her to me because you turned your back upon her, and He looks upon her as mine…when a man turns a blessing from his door, it falls to them as take in." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Belief, doubt 8 "The believer is happy; the doubter is wise." Hungarian proverb. Portable Curmudgeon.

Belief, doubt 8 Men become civilized because they doubt rather than believe. "Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt." H. L. Mencken. Portable Curmudgeon.

Quotes: Babbitt. Banks. Baptism. Baseball.

Babbitt
Babbitt 322 Babbitt realizes that he can never be anything else than what he is. Mark Shorer, Afterword: "It is Babbitt’s tragedy that he can never be anything but Babbitt, and this he learns well before the end of the book...." Lewis, Babbitt.

Babbitt 323 When he is free, he [Babbitt] learns that he can never be free, but can only be what he is. Mark Shorer, Afterword: "...when he is free he is nothing at all...only self is the self that exists only within the circle of conformity." Lewis, Babbitt.

Banks
Banks 30 Metaphor for a bank: When you don't need money, they want to give it to you. When you need money they won't. "A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain." Robert Frost. Portable Curmudgeon.

Baptism
1. Baptism 235 Baptism is a "devil-chasing rite." "I refuse to subject him [the baby] to any devil-chasing rites [Baptism]." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Baseball
Baseball 14 On walking into a baseball stadium. " …sees the great open horseshoe of the grand stand and that unfolding vision of the grass that always seems to mean he has stepped outside his life…." DeLillo, Underworld.

Baseball 14 Warm-up pitches. "…he hears the warm-up pitches crack into the catcher’s mitt; a series of reports that carry a comet’s tail of secondary sound." DeLillo, Underworld.

Baseball 16 " …little waxy napkins they got with their hot dogs…." DeLillo, Underworld.

Baseball 20 "Get yer peanuts." "…circus-catching dimes on the wing and then sailing peanut bags into people’s chests." DeLillo, Underworld.

Baseball 25 Radio re-creations of baseball games in a studio. Russ Hodges: "I spent years in a studio doing re-creations of big league games …telegraph …clacking in the background and blabbermouth Hodges inventing ninety-nine percent of the action." DeLillo, Underworld.

Baseball 36 Audience applause. "Now the rhythmic applause starts, tentative at first, then spreading densely through the stands." DeLillo, Underworld.

Baseball 93 You had to see the Brooklyn Dodgers in order to appreciate them. "No one could explain the Dodgers who wasn’t there." DeLillo, Underworld.

Baseball 131 "You have to know the feel of a baseball in your hand." DeLillo, Underworld.

Quotes: Authority. Autobiography. Automobile. Autumn.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Authority
Authority 131 "Authority is never without hate." Euripides. 411 BC. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Authority 221 "Authority brooks no equal." Portuguese. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Autobiography
Autobiography 215 No one can tell everything about himself. "That I, or any man, should tell everything of himself, I hold to be impossible; who could endure to own the doing of a mean thing?…who is there that has done none?" Trollope. 1883. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Automobile
Automobile 29 The virile adventure of parallel parking a car. "Epochal as starting the car was the drama of parking it before he entered the office; with front wheels nicking the wrought-steel bumper of the car in front, he stopped, feverishly cramped his steering wheel, slid back into the vacant space and, with eighteen inches of room, maneuvered to bring the car level with the curb…a virile adventure masterfully executed." Lewis, Babbitt.

Automobile 45 Driving a car feels like power. "Babbitt…slid on with the traffic as the policeman lifted his hand…noted how quickly his car picked up…felt superior and powerful…." Lewis, Babbitt.

Autumn
Autumn 1192 The yellow leaves acted like sunlight. "In the summer time, the shade of so many clustering branches, meeting and intermingling across the rivulet, was deep enough to produce a noontide twilight; hence came the name of Shadow Brook; but now, ever since autumn had crept into that secluded place, all the dark verdure was changed to gold; so that it really kindled up the dell, instead of shading it; the bright yellow leaves, even had it been a cloudy day, would have seemed to keep the sunlight among them; and enough of them had fallen to strew all the bed and margin of the brook with sunlight too." Shadow Brook: Introductory to “The Golden Touch.” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Autumn 1211 From morning to night in autumn, we are conscious of living. "And when the cool night [in autumn] comes, we are conscious of having enjoyed a big armful of life, since morning."Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Autumn 1142 In autumn, the roof of a house is an intrusion. "I could scarcely endure the roof of the old house above me in these first autumnal days." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Autumn 1142 The first signs of autumn come early in the summer. "How early in the summer, too, the prophecy of autumn comes!—earlier in some years than in others,--sometimes, even in the first weeks of July." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Autumn 1143 Even in the heat of autumn, there is a coolness and mildness. "Autumn: There is a coolness amid all the heat; a mildness in the blazing noon." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Autumn 1143 In autumn, the leaves fall, even without a breath of air. "Autumn: …at sunrise, the leaves fall from the trees of our avenue without a breath of wind, quietly descending by their own weight." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Autumn 316 Autumn winds whip the golden leaves of birches from the trees. "…autumn wind of whimsical gusts that whip the leaves from the birches in clouds of gold…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year.

Quotes: Author.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Author
Author 719 What does an author do? "Little do you suspect, that a student of human life has made your character the theme of more than one solitary and thoughtful hour." Hawthorne.

Author 721 Suitor must make up a story about the ring he has given his beloved. "…Clara Pemberton, examining an antique ring, which her betrothed lover had just presented to her… 'needs only one thing to make it perfect…it needs nothing but a story…you must kindle your imagination…and make a legend for it.' ” Hawthorne “The Antique Ring”

Author 893 An author's manuscript unread by the public is hurled into a bonfire. "An American author, whose works were neglected by the public, threw his pen and paper into the bonfire, and betook himself to some less discouraging occupation." Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”

Author 439 Sinclair Lewis was a combination of the characters of Carol and Kennicott, the dreamer and the realist. "Generally speaking, he [Sinclair Lewis] views the material of his novel as she [Carol] views it, and all his life, a good half of his nature was given to the same kind of romantic reverie that motivates Carol...the other half of his nature was Will Kennicott’s—downright, realistic, sensible, crude…two together make the author, and just as in his life these two parts of himself struggled against each other, so at the end of his novel, the husband and wife are still ‘enemies yoked.’ " Mark Schorer, Afterword. Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Author 1301 An author annihilates the reader's personality as he creates characters in his work. "…but something whispers me that he [the author] has a terrible power over ourselves, extending to nothing short of annihilation." “The Chimera” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Author 1301 If an author heard the criticisms of his characters, he could fling them all in the stove and they would be nothing forevermore. "If our babble were to reach his [the author’s] ears, and happen not to please him, he has but to fling a quire or two of paper into the stove; and you, Primrose, and I, and Periwinkle, Sweet Fern, Squash Blossom, Blue Eye, Huckleberry, Clover, Cowslip, Plantain, Milkweed, Dandelion, and Butter-Cup—yes, and wise Mr. Pringle with his unfavorable criticisms on my legends, and poor Mrs. Pringle, too—would all turn to smoke, and go whisking up the funnel." “The Chimera” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Author Stephen Crane 157 Stephen Crane seemed to understand the character of men in battle better than men who had actually been in battle. "…he [Crane] seemed to understand the psychology of men in battle better than those who had actually been present at armed struggles." “About the Author.” Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

Author Stephen Crane 157 Crane learned about men in battle through reading, interviews with veterans and his imagination. "He [Crane] knew what occurred in bloody conflict only through reading, through conversation with veterans of the Civil War, and, most of all, through his own power of imagination." “About the Author.” Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

Author Stephen Crane 157 An experience that gave rise to one of America's finest short stories. "While accompanying a[n] … expedition a little earlier than the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he was shipwrecked and was one of three men who managed to escape in an open boat to the coast of Florida…hardships he endured on this trip undermined Crane’s health and finally brought about his death from consumption [at age 30], but they also gave him the material for one of his most marvelous narratives, 'The Open Boat,' called by H.G. Wells 'the finest short story in the English language.' ” “About the Author.” Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

Author Stephen Crane 158 "Crane…not particularly a good student, but was deeply interested in two things—books and baseball." “About the Author.” Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

Quotes: Attidue. Audience. August.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Attitude
Attitude 351 One feels as if he is lying when he speaks to a policeman. "One always has the air of someone who is lying when one speaks to a policeman." Charles-Louis Philippe. 1874-1909. Gross, ed. The Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Attitude 111 He never walked the old path when he could explore the new. "But the father never liked to follow an old path while there was still unexplored land left around him." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Attitude 376 " …she’s always had the heavy heart to fight against." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Audience
Audience 1211 He was always asking questions about the exact height of giants and the size of the fairies and now the weight of gold after Marygold had been turned into it. "Cousin Eustace, said Sweet Fern, a good little boy, who was always making particular inquiries about the precise height of giants and the littleness of fairies, how big was Marygold, and how much did she weigh, after she was turned to gold?" Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Audience 1235 He reminded the father that he was talking to children, not to adults. Eustace Bright to Mr. Pringle: "…be kind enough to remember that I am addressing myself to the imagination and sympathies of the children, not to your own." “Tanglewood Fireside. Introductory to 'The Three golden Apples' ” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

August
August 210 Characteristics of the month of August. "August comes with hot days, warm nights, a brassy sun, and something in the air, perhaps the season itself, that begins to rust the high-hung leaves of the elms." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 210 Languid summer. "The night still twinkles with fireflies but the day’s heat lingers and the air has a dusty August scent, the smell of languid summer." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 212 Serenity. August. "…a kind of sweet serenity now possesses the land." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 212 Cattails. August. "Cattails lift green bayonetted ranks from the mucky margins." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 212 Dragonflies and swallows. "August. Dragonflies in the hot afternoon, swallows in the cool of evening, seine the air for mosquitoes." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 212 Cicadas, the drowsy sound of August. August. "The heat of midday throbs with the cicada’s shrill drone, one of the drowsiest of all summer sounds." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 213 "[Goldenrod]. …a visual tonic for the jaded eyes of August." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 214 "August makes its own season." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 217 Crickets and katydids. August. "Crickets now are fiddling in the long, hot afternoons, katydids will soon be scratching at the night." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 218 "There is a mellowness about a moonlit night in August…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 224 The lake in August. August. "Dawn and [the lake] is gauzed with mist; sunrise begins to lift the mist and the water dances and glitters as the morning breeze begins to clear the air; noon and it is lazy as the damselflies along its shore…sunset fades, but dusk lingers, shimmmery with reflected light; then darkness, starlight again, moonlight, and the slow lap of water at the moored boats." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 226 "Late August nights are always insect-loud." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 226 The frenzy of insects on an August night. "Now all these fiddlers [insects] are out and making the darkness echo as though driven by a special frenzy." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

August 232 The crow caws in August. August. "Not another bird makes a sound until a crow caws in the distance." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Quotes: Aristocracy. Art.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Aristocracy
Aristocracy 889 Let no historic documents provide an excuse for lording it over other people. "And, henceforth, let no man dare to show a piece of musty parchment, as his warrant for lording it over his fellows!" Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”

Aristocracy 889 No one should be privileged because of ancestors. "But from this day forward, no mortal must hope for place and consideration, by reckoning up the moldy bones of his ancestors!" Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”

Art
Art 711 I need to study the sculpture in order to understand the spirit of the sculptor. "I therefore turned away, with merely a passing glance, resolving on some future occasion to brood over each individual statue and picture, until my inmost spirit should feel their excellence." Hawthorne: “A Virtuoso’s Collection”

Art 911 "…for if I strive to put the very spirit of beauty into form, and give it motion…." Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Art 916 The artist must extend his spirit of beauty by putting it into a material form. "Alas, that the artist, whether in poetry or whatever other material, may not content himself with the inward enjoyment of the beautiful, but must chase the flitting mystery beyond the verge of his ethereal domain and crush its frail being in seizing it with a material grasp." Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Art 916 The vision of beauty can only imperfectly be copied in a material form. "Owen Warland felt the impulse to give external reality to his ideas, as irresistibly as any of the poets or painters, who have arrayed the world in a dimmer or fainter beauty, imperfectly copied from the richness of their visions." Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Art 917 "…now that you are so taken up with the notion of putting spirit into machinery." Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Art 922 The ideal of creating beauty in machinery as God did with all living creatures. "In his idle and dreamy days, he had considered it possible, in a certain sense, to spiritualize machinery; and to combine with the new species of life and motion, thus produced, a beauty that should attain to the ideal which nature had proposed to herself, in all her creatures…." Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Art 926 Why go to the trouble of creating a butterfly when scores of them are available on any afternoon? "Do you suppose any mortal has skill enough to make a butterfly—or would put himself to the trouble of making one, when any child may catch a score of them in a summer’s afternoon?" Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Art 927 So long as it is beautiful, why ask who created it? "Wherefore ask who created it, so it be beautiful?" Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Art 928 So you have created beauty. So what? What is its practical use? “Well that does beat all nature!” cried Robert Danforth [watching the mechanical butterfly], bestowing the heartiest praise that he could find expression for… “But what then? There is more real use in one downright blow of my sledge-hammer, than in the whole five years’ labor that our friend Owen has wasted on his butterfly” “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Art 291 "The great artists are those who impose their personal vision upon humanity." Maupassant. 1887. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Art 304 "Art is man’s nature." Edmund Burke. 1791. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Art 306 Works of art provide the standards by which they are to be judged. "Genuine works of art carry their own aesthetic theory implicit within them and suggest the standards according to which they are to be judged." Goethe. 1808. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Art 310 Ugly artifacts can soon seem beautiful in a beautiful landscape. "That nasty little railway station, devoid of taste and style, becomes an element of beauty in the landscape which at first made it ugly." Remy De Gourmont. 1905. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Art 10 Abstract art defined. "Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered." Al Capp. Portable Curmudgeon.

Art 30 "True art is to conceal art." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Art 30 "Art is long, life is short." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Art 317 Art is not rigid as a scientific formula or theological dogma. "Art...cannot be narrowed into the rigidity of a scientific formula or a theological dogma." Oscar Wilde, “ ‘The True Critic’.” 1891. Gross, ed. Essays.

Art 318 Art is not inspired, but it inspires. "[Art] does not spring from inspiration, but it makes others inspired." Oscar Wilde, “ ‘The True Critic’.” 1891. Gross, ed. Essays.

Art 68 If art does not help us get through life, it's useless. "...I can’t see any use in this high-art stuff that doesn’t encourage us day-laborers to plod on." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Art 150 In America, art is as monetarily rewarding as any other business. "In other countries, art and literature are left to a lot of shabby bums living in attics and feeding on booze and spaghetti, but in America the successful writer or picture-painter is indistinguishable from any other decent businessman…has a chance to drag down his fifty thousand bucks a year, to mingle with the biggest executives on terms of perfect equality, and to have as big a house and as swell a car as any Captain of Industry." Lewis, Babbitt.

Art 672 The only art is to observe the streets and collect what is happening. "This is the only art I’ve mastered, Father—walking these streets and letting the senses collect what is routinely there." DeLillo, Underworld.

Art and life 131 "Life is earnest; art is joyous." Schiller. German. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Quotes: Argument.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Argument
Argument 260 "Opponents fancy they refute us when they repeat their own opinion and pay no attention to ours." Goethe. Early 19th century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Argument 260 "Nothing was ever learned by either side in a dispute." Hazlitt. 1820. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Argument 260 "It is labor in vain to dispute with a man…." Anon. Early 18th century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Argument 261 Arguments are between personalities, not on issues. "Some have wondered that disputes about opinions should so often end in personalities; but the fact is, that such disputes begin with personalities; for our opinions are a part of ourselves; besides, after the first contradiction it is ourselves, and not the thing, we maintain." Edward Fitzgerald. 1852. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Argument 262 "Every word that we utter rouses its contrary." Goethe. Early 19th century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Argument 156 "A wager is a fool's argument; betting marks the fool." French. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Argument 26 An argument that divided friends, professors and priests. "This argument over which dear friends grew to hate each other and about which professors tried to crack the skulls of priests, was briefly this: Can living things arise spontaneously, or does every living thing have to have parents?" DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Argument 81 Pasteur's experiments won him many arguments. "Many times Pasteur won his arguments by brilliant experiments that simply floored everyone." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Argument 95 Contrasting types of arguments. "...became loud public answers to such objections--rather than calm quests after facts." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Argument 116 Don't talk, just show. "But Koch didn’t lecture--he was never much at talking--instead of telling them that his microbes were the true cause of anthrax, he showed these sophisticated professors." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Argument 122 Answered objections before they were brought up. "Up till this time Koch had had very little criticism or opposition from other men of science, mainly because he almost never opened his mouth until he was sure of his results...told of his discoveries with disarming modesty and his work was so unanswerably complete--he had a way of seeing the objections that critics might make and replying to them in advance." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Argument 133 One way of arguing. "...with no oratorical raisings of his [Koch’s] voice...." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Argument 142 Answering doubters before they had a chance to doubt. "Koch was as coldly logical as a textbook of geometry...systematic experiments... and he thought of all the objections that doubters might make before such doubters knew that there was anything to have doubts about." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Argument 180 Unlawyerlike: giving all the fors and againsts the issue. "...a most unlawyerlike report reciting all of the fors and againsts on the question of whether or no this new bacillus was the cause of diphtheria." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Argument 216 Arguing with oneself. "Silas, on the other hand, was again stricken in conscience, and alarmed lest Godfrey’s accusation should be true—lest he should be raising his own will as an obstacle to Eppie’s good." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Argument vs. quest for knowledge 119 Wordy brawls vs. quiet quests for knowledge. " ...the baby science of microbe hunting which up till now had been as much a wordy brawl as a quest for knowledge." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Quotes: Antagonist. Aphorism. Apple Trees. April. Architecture.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Antagonist
Antagonist 137 Our antagonists help us to grow stronger. "He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill; our antagonist is our helper." Edmund Burke. 1790. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Aphorism
Aphorism 70 "A stumble may prevent a fall." Thomas Fuller (2). 1732. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Aphorism 245 "…when Hell fills up, the dead will walk the streets." DeLillo, Underworld.

Aphorisms 251 Clever statements are probably wrong. "Anything you say that is remarkable is sure to be wrong. Never say anything remarkable; it is sure to be wrong." Mark Rutherford. 1915. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Aphorisms 364 "Few maxims are true in every respect." Vauvenargues. 1746. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Apple Trees
Apple trees 1130 Apple trees have considerable individuality. "There is so much individuality of character, too, among apple trees…the variety of grotesque shapes, into which apple-trees contort themselves…." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

April
April 91 "By April you begin to see the buds against the sky." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

April 94 "April. …uncounted millions of taut and waiting buds." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

April 97 "April. …hazed with green…a kind of pastel shimmer." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

April 97 "April. Our eyes need the comfort of grass and leaves…. "Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

April 103 "April. One can walk with April rain…doesn’t slash or sting." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

April 116 "April is color: pussy willow gray, pollen gold, violet purple, marsh marigold yellow, grass green…all the greens in the spectrum…an astonishment of pastels…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

April 116 "April is a young world, new as sunrise…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

April 116 "Nothing is newer than an April morning, nothing more full of wonder than a bud or a seed." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

April 116 "In April an old world is made new again." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Architecture
Architecture 110 "Architecture is frozen music." Goethe. German. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Quotes: Amusement. Analogy. Anger. Animals.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Amusement
Amusement 18 "Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think." Alexander Pope. Portable Curmudgeon.

Amusements 330 "The finest amusements are the most pointless ones." Jacques Chardonne. 1884-1968. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Analogy
Analogy 266 "…analogies are for philosophers and lawyers." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Anger
Anger 41 It takes intelligence to be angry in the right way. "It is easy to fly into a passion--anybody can do that--but to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time and with the right object and in the right way--that is not easy, and it is not everyone who can do it." Aristotle. 4th century B.C. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Anger 42 "To be angry is to revenge the faults of others upon ourselves." Pope. 1727. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Anger 42 Anger creates your own prison. "An ill-humored man is a prisoner at the mercy of an enemy from whom he can never escape." Sa’Di. 1258. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Anger 190 "Anger is a brief madness." Horace. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Anger 22 "Let not the sun go down on your wrath." Thomas Fuller, “Of Anger.” 1642. Gross, ed. Essays.

Anger 22 If we could see ourselves when we are angry, we would lose all respect for ourselves. "Had Narcissus himself seen his own face when he had been angry, he could never have fallen in love with himself." Thomas Fuller, “Of Anger.” 1642. Gross, ed. Essays.

Animals
Animals 426 You can learn perseverance and concentration from watching animals. "There is nothing more concentrated than the perseverance with which a duck preens its feathers or a cat washes its fur." Marianne Moore. “What There Is to See at the Zoo.” 1955. Gross, ed. Essays.

Animals 17 In the loneliness of the frontier, animals are company. "That’s a badger hole…about as big as a big ‘possum, and his face is striped, black and white…takes a chicken once in a while, but I won’t let the men harm him; in a new country a body feels friendly to the animals…like to have him come out and watch me when I work." Cather, My Ántonia

Animals 45 Vivid description of a rattlesnake. "Rattlesnake-- ...abominable muscularity, his loathsome, fluid motion...as thick as my leg, and looked as if millstones couldn’t crush the disgusting vitality out him...lifted his hideous little head and rattled...I saw his coils tighten--now he would spring, spring his length...." 46 Rattlesnake…Even after I had pounded his ugly head flat, his body kept on coiling and winding, doubling and falling back on itself. Cather, My Ántonia

Animals 57 Wolves. "The wolves ran like streaks of shadow; they looked no bigger than dogs, but there were hundreds of them...nothing seemed to check the wolves." Cather, My Ántonia

Animals 223 House and stable under one roof. "She realized now the great forethought he had shown last summer in building the house and stable under one roof…undoubtedly had the warmest house in the neighborhood, and then she enjoyed the company of the animals as she lay awake at night; it felt so cozy and secure to lie there and listen to them." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Animals 14 "The fox, a shadow in the moonlight…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Animals 26 "[Squirrels’] …reckless treetop chases." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Animals 26 ""Squirrels. High-tension bundles of energy." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Animals 27 Squirrels. "The speed and grace of a squirrel, the flaunt of that eloquent tail, the breath-taking leap from high limb to limb…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Animals 41 Fox. "The fox is a handsome creature, with red fur coat, white-tipped fluff of a tail, ever-alert ears and eyes, and he struts when he isn’t streaking. He [the fox] is a handsome creature, with that magnificent red fur coat, that white-tipped fluff of a tail, those ever-alert ears and eyes, and he fairly struts when he isn’t running like a streak." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year.

Animals 68 "…red squirrels, which can scold like a catbird, chatter like a flicker, shriek like a jay." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Animals 69 The red squirrel: "…darts, he scurries, he plunges headlong and he is superbly graceful every instant." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year.

Quotes: America.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

America
America 98 LBJ saw his role as reconciling differences among the American people. "[LBJ] saw his role as one of identifying differences among the American people and then reconciling those differences so that the country could move forward toward a better life for all." McNamara’s In Retrospect

America 253 Dissent in America is a fundamental right. McNamara: "But whatever comfort some of the extremist protest may be giving our enemy…let us be perfectly clear about our principles and our priorities: This is a nation in which freedom of dissent is absolutely fundamental." McNamara’s In Retrospect.

America 253 No dissent, no democracy. McNamara: "I don’t think we can have a democracy without freedom to dissent." McNamara’s In Retrospect

America 257 Dissent preserves freedom. "…dissent is both the prerogative and the preservative of free men everywhere." McNamara’s In Retrospect

America 331 We have to recognize that we can't right all wrongs. " …there may be times when we must recognize that we cannot right all wrongs." McNamara’s In Retrospect

America 15 America is a nation of used-car salesmen who buy guns and kill anyone who makes us uncomfortable. . "America…just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable." Hunter S. Thompson. Portable Curmudgeon.

America 16 America resulted in great cruelty and greed. "The discovery of America was the occasion of the greatest outburst of cruelty and reckless greed known in history." Joseph Conrad. Portable Curmudgeon.

America 18 The American way is to seduce, prostitute or ignore. "The American way is to seduce a man by bribery and make a prostitute of him; or else to ignore him, starve him into submission and make a hack out of him." Henry Miller. Portable Curmudgeon.

America 222 I'm beginning to believe that anybody can become president. "When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become president; I’m beginning to believe it." Clarence Darrow. Portable Curmudgeon.

America 581 Americans are committed to a cheerful view of life. "America, as a social and political organization, is committed to a cheerful view of life." Robert Warshow. “The Gangster as Tragic Hero.” 1948. Gross, ed. Essays.

America 632 Americans don't allow for the reality of the dark forces of life. "The American vision of the world—which allows so little reality, generally speaking, for any of the darker forces in human life…." James Baldwin. “Stranger in the Village.” 1953. Gross, ed. Essays.

America 6 "Main Street is the climax of civilization." Lewis, Main Street.

America 259 The American country village succeeds Victorian England in mediocrity. "But a village in a country…which aspires to succeed Victorian England as the chief mediocrity of the world…functions admirably in the large production of cheap automobiles, dollar watches, and safety razors…not satisfied until the entire world also admits that the end and joyous purpose of living is to ride in flivvers…and in the twilight to sit talking…of the convenience of safety razors." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

America 323 American life is defined by conformity. Mark Shorer, Afterword: "Since the publication of Babbitt, everyone has learned that conformity is the great price that our predominantly commercial culture exacts of American life." Lewis, Babbitt.

America 791 "[Nuclear bombs made by the U.S.] …the perfect capitalist tool…kill people, spare property." DeLillo, Underworld.

America 249 Will America last as long as the frog that is 500 million years old? “The frog is almost five hundred million years old; could you really say with much certainty that America, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is the highest in the world, will last as long as…the frog?” Heller, Catch-22.

America 414 Americans jeopardize their rights by exercising them. "He was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them." Heller, Catch-22.

America 78 About one-third of Americans change their residence each year. "Between March 1967 and March 1968—in a single year—36,000,000 Americans …changed their place of residence." Toffler, Future Shock.

America 155 Individual Americans are always trying to steal the show. "A country like the United States has an open public drama, in which new faces appear daily…always a contest to steal the show." Toffler, Future Shock.

America 309 There is no longer any national sense of identity. "As sub-cults multiply and values diversify, we find, in Speicher’s words, 'a national sense of identity hopelessly fragmented.' " Toffler, Future Shock.

Americans 17 Americans make complicated stupid moves that cause the rest of the world to wonder if there really is something to them. "The genius of you Americans is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves, only complicated stupid moves which make us wonder at the possibility that there may be something to them which we are missing." Gamal Abdel Nasser. Portable Curmudgeon.

Americans 26 Americans no longer love the liberty and self-reliance of our forefathers. "The typical American of today has lost all the love of liberty that his forefathers had, and all their disgust of emotion, and pride in self-reliance." H. L. Mencken. Portable Curmudgeon.

Quotes: Alchemy. Altruism. Ambition.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by itself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Alchemy
Alchemy 2 Things have souls and, awakened, they have a life of their own. "Things have a life of their own, the gypsy proclaimed…simply a matter of waking up their souls." Marquez, I. One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Altruism
Altruism 176 Benevolence has some additional motive. "Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive." Sam. Johnson. 1776. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Altruism 197 "There is often a good deal of spleen at the bottom of benevolence." Hazlitt. 1823. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Altruism 13 Altruism is the name given to every horror of history. "Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive." Ayn Rand. Portable Curmudgeon.

Altruism 10 Common people don't think they are common. “I just love common workmen,” glowed Carol. Classmate Stewart Snyder: “Only you don’t want to forget that common workmen don’t think they’re common.” Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Altruism 11 She wanted to improve the culture and taste of the poor. "She wanted, just now, to have a cell in a settlement-house, like a nun without the bother of a black robe, and be kind, and read Bernard Shaw, and enormously improve a horde of grateful poor." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Altruism 74 To be good to others does not mean that you must be cruel to yourself. "For when nature encourages you to be good to others, she does not then order you to be cruel and harsh to yourself." Sir Thomas More, Utopia.


Ambition
Ambition 1242 People who attempt great things denigrate what they have already done. "But thus it always is with persons who are destined to perform great things; what they have already done seems less than nothing; what they have taken in hand to do seems worth toil, danger, and life itself." “The Three Golden Apples” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Ambition 541 Worthless money is like building castles in the air. “It [outdated money] is just the sort of capital for building castles in the air.” Hawthorne: “Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure.”

Ambition 954 To be famous, you will need to live for the age in which you exist and maybe you will live for posterity. "Yet, if your heart is set on being known…the surest, the only method, is, to live truly and wisely for your own age, whereby, if the native force be in you, you may likewise live for posterity." Hawthorne: “A Select Party”

Ambition 95 Where do people who appear to be "up and coming" disappear to? "How many ‘coming men’ one has known! Where on earth do they all go to? Sir Arthur Pinero." Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Ambition 107 To be ambitious is to be villified by enemies while living and ridiculed by friends when dead. "Ambition: An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead." Ambrose Bierce. 1906. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Ambition 107 The slave has only one master; ambitious people have as many masters as they need to advance themselves. "A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position." La Bruyere. 1688. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Ambition 131 Successful people ultimately fail because of the faults they used to succeed. "We see men fall from high estate on account of the very faults through which they attained it." La Bruyere. 1688. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Ambition 132 We see others fail, but that does not keep us from trying to succeed. "The favorites of fortune or fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition." Vauvenargues. 1746.

Quotes: Age.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote stands by iteself and needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Age
Age 341 “At fifty you begin to be tired of the world, and at sixty the world is tired of you.” Count Oxenstierna. Mid 17th century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Age 341 “Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that happen to a man.” Trotsky. 1935. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Age 341 “Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.” Sam. Johnson. 1750-2. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Age 343 “The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” Oscar Wilde. 1891. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Age 345 “He is the happiest man who can trace unbroken the connection between the end of his life and the beginning.” Goethe. Early 19th century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Age 345 A man must grow old in order to understand how short life is. “A man must have grown old and lived long in order to see how short life is.” Schopenhauer. 1851. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Age 50 “Old men are twice children.” Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Age 129 “As we grow old, we become more foolish and more wise.” La Rochefoucauld. French. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Age 271 “Few people know how to be old.” La Rochefoucauld. French. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Age 13 He would never live life over again. "He looks over his former life as a danger well past, and would not hazard himself to begin again." John Earle, “A Good Old Man.” 1628. Gross, ed. Essays.

Age 13 The good old man shares his experience with youth, without criticizing them. " He [the good old man] practices his experience on youth without the harshness of reproof, and in his counsel is good company." John Earle, “A Good Old Man.” 1628. Gross, ed. Essays.

Age 13 A good old man remembers how often he has told his stories. "He [the good old man] has some old stories...but remembers...how oft he has told them." John Earle, “A Good Old Man.” 1628. Gross, ed. Essays.

Age 429 The tragedy of old age is that youth does not need your experience and advice. Thus Carol hit upon the tragedy of old age, which is not that it is less vigorous than youth, but that it is not needed by youth…divined that when Aunt Bessie came in with a jar of wild-grape jelly she was waiting in hope of being asked for the recipe. Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Age 7 In old age, he was not interested in the adventures of a new day. "He who had been a boy very credulous of life was no longer greatly interested in the possible and improbable adventures of each new day." Lewis, Babbitt.

Age 235 To the reverend, he was wicked; to the young Miss Ida, he was a bore. "He reflected that from the standpoint of the Rev. Dr. John Jennison Drew he was a wicked man, and from the standpoint of Miss Ida Putiak, an old bore who had to be endured as the penalty attached to eating a large dinner. "Lewis, Babbitt.

Age 223 …retired more or less from everything. DeLillo, Underworld.

Quotes: Advertising. Advice. Affluence. Afterlife.

NOTE: The statement in bold-face is a brief summary of the quote, or the quote needs no simplification. The number to the left is the page number.

Advertising
Advertising 43 Advertising appeals to men’s passions. "Men’s passions are so many roads by which they can be reached." Vauvenargues. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.1746.

Advertising 108 "Promise—large promise—is the soul of an advertisement." Sam. Johnson. 1758. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Advertising 81 Advertising controlled the surface of his life. "…so did the large national advertisers fix the surface of his life, fix what he believed to be his individuality." Lewis, Babbitt.

Advertising 81 Possession of advertised products was the proof of his excellence and substitute for emotional fulfillment. "These standard advertised wares—toothpastes, socks, tires, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters—were his symbols and proofs of excellence; at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom." Lewis, Babbitt.

Advertising 166 Of 560 advertising messages a day, people only notice 76. "…the average American adult is assaulted by a minimum of 560 advertising messages each day…however, he only notices 76." Toffler, Future Shock.

Advertising 223 Advertisers attempt to fill people’s needs. "Advertisers strive to stamp each product with its own distinct image [which is] functional: they fill a need on the part of the consumer." Toffler, Future Shock.

Advice
Advice 374 If you have not experienced it, don’t give advice on it. Per Hansa: "My experience has been that it is mighty easy for one to talk about things he has not tried…I have sweat blood over this thing—and now I’m no longer equal to it…have you ever thought what it means for a man to be in constant fear that the mother may do away with her own children—and that, besides, it may be his fault that she has fallen into that state of mind?" Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Advice 348 She thought all week of advice she wanted to give to him about improving himself. "All week she thought of things she wished to say to him, high, improving things." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Advice 280 “Advice” meant “thou shalt.” “ 'Advise' was his [Sir Thomas’s] word, but it was the advice of absolute power." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Affluence
Affluence 28 "...too much plenty impoverishes me...." Abraham Cowley, “Of Avarice.” 1665. Gross, ed. Essays.

Afterlife
Afterlife 1368 I go to a better life where I hope to see my daughter. "I go now to the better world, and, sooner or later, shall find my daughter there." “The Dragon’s Teeth” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales

Afterlife 816 Heaven sounds like a bore. Mr. Take-It-Easy: "…I heard such bad accounts [of the Celestial City]…no business doing—no fun going on—nothing to drink, and no smoking allowed—and a thrumming of church-music from morning till night." Hawthorne: “The Celestial Rail-Road”

Afterlife 362 There must be a better life because life can’t be created just for suffering. "Is there another life?…There must be, we cannot be created for this sort of suffering." Keats. 1820. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Quotes: Acting. Addison. Admiration. Adolescence. Adults and Children.

Acting
Acting 11 An Actor has a very short “life expectancy.” “An actor's success has the life expectancy of a small boy about to look into a gas tank with a lighted match.” Fred Allen. Portable Curmudgeon.

Acting 58 “She runs the gamut of emotions form A to B.” Dorothy Parker on Katharine Hepburn. Portable Curmudgeon.

Actors 1020 Actors are shadows on the wall and echoes of someone else’s thoughts. “It behooves actors…to vanish from the scene betimes, being, at best, but painted shadows flickering on the wall, and empty sounds that echo another’s thought….” Hawthorne: “P’s Correspondence” Hawthorne.

Addison
Addison xx “Addison...transformed the essay into a civilizing force...against coarseness and pedantry.” Introduction. Gross, ed. Essays.

Admiration
Admiration 11 “Admiration: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.” Ambrose Bierce. Portable Curmudgeon.

Adolescence
Adolescence 187 “Until the beginning of adolescence they were two synchronized machines.” Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Adults and Children
Adults and children 611 If I have to be a child to enter Heaven, I want nothing to do with Heaven. “It was that verse about becoming again as a little child that caused the first sharp waning of my Christian sympathies; if the kingdom of Heaven could be entered only by those fulfilling such a condition I knew I should be unhappy there…was not the prospect of being deprived of money, keys, wallet, letters, books, long-playing records, drinks, the opposite sex, and other solaces of adulthood that upset me…but having to put up indefinitely with the company of other children, their noise, their nastiness, their boasting, their back-answers, their cruelty, their silliness.” Philip Larkin. “The Savage Seventh.” 1959. Gross, ed. Essays.

Adults and children 611 I don’t dislike people, just children. “The realization that it was not people I disliked but children was for me one of those celebrated moments of revelation” Philip Larkin. “The Savage Seventh.” 1959. Gross, ed. Essays.

Quotes: Achievement

Introduction: Perspectives on Ideas 2 is the second volume of quotes in a series. The major difference between this collection of quotes and others is that I summarize briefly in bold face the complex quotes. My purpose for reading is ideas. These quotes are taken from books unfamiliar to many readers. I have grouped them according to topic. The quotes could be useful to support ideas in the reader's writing and speaking. They are also useful for reflection. I welcome the reader's sending quotes to me to be included, with credit, in my blog. I will appreciate any comments from my readers.

Achievement
Achievement 1323 Theseus was too active to bother talking about what he had already accomplished. “Theseus, however, was much too brave and active a young man to be willing to spend all his time in relating things which had already happened.” “The Minotaur” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales.

Achievement 777 His spirit was ever reaching beyond what he had already achieved. “And, with her whole spirit, she prayed, that, for a single moment, she might satisfy his highest and deepest conception; longer than one moment, she well knew, it could not be; for his spirit was ever on the march—ever ascending—and each instant required something that was beyond the scope of the instant before.” Hawthorne: “The Birth Mark”

Achievement 912 I don’t want to be honored for inventing some new pedestrian machine. “I am not ambitious to be honored with the paternity of a new kind of cotton-machine.” Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Achievement 913 The greatest ideas are shattered by “practical” people. “Thus it is, that ideas which grow up within the imagination, and appear so lovely to it, and of value beyond whatever men call valuable, are exposed to be shattered and annihilated by contact with the practical…he must keep his faith in himself, while the incredulous world assails him with its utter disbelief; he must stand up against mankind and be his own sole disciple, both as respects his genius, and the objects to which it is directed.” Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Achievement 915 The evil spirit of leaden thoughts and despondency of others keeps me from achieving the task I was born for. “You are my evil spirit, answered Owen…you and the hard coarse world; the leaden thoughts and the despondency that you fling upon me are my clogs; else, I should long ago have achieved the task that I was created for.” Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Achievement 917 People who are in advance of mankind experience a shiver of moral cold. “To persons whose pursuits are insulated from the common business of life—who are either in advance of mankind, or apart from it—there often comes a sensation of moral cold, that makes the spirit shiver, as if it had reached the frozen solitudes around the pole.” Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Achievement 928 The reward of all achievement is in the achievement itself. “…to learn that the reward of all high performance must be sought within itself, or sought in vain.” Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Achievement 931 The symbol of his achievement meant little to him. “When the artist rose high enough to achieve the Beautiful, the symbol by which he made it perceptible to mortal senses became of little value in his eyes, while his spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of the reality.” Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Achievement 943 For one moment his creative power and genius achieved its goal, but he could never repeat it. “…on the supposition, that in every human spirit there is imagination, sensibility, creative power, genius, which, according to circumstances, may either be developed in this world, or shrouded in a mask of dullness until another state of being; to our friend Drowne, there came a brief season of excitement…rendered him a genius for that one occasion, but, quenched in disappointment, left him again the mechanical carver in wood, without the power even of appreciating the work that his own hands had wrought.” Hawthorne: “Drowne’s Wooden Image”

Achievement 37 One has to love life in order to achieve. “The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.” Dr. Johnson. 1750-02. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Achievement 96 “There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.” Balzac. 1843. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Achievement 96 The first who try fail, leaving the advantages to those who follow. “The first undertakers in all great attempts commonly miscarry, and leave the advantages of their losses to those that come after them.” Samuel Butler (I). 1660-80. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Achievement 97 If every objection must be overcome, nothing will be attempted. “Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.” Sam. Johnson. 1759. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Achievement 97 In order to achieve, one must renounce everything else. “In accomplishing anything definite a man renounces everything else.” Santayana. 1905-6. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Achievement 100 To get anything done, do not care who gets the credit. “The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit of dong them.” Benjamin Jowett. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Achievement 27 Great ideas in science often start with ideas that are unscientific. “Great advances in science so often start from prejudice, on ideas got not from science but straight out of a scientist’s head, on notions that are…the opposite of the prevailing superstitious nonsense of the day.” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 67 Pasteur enjoyed working alone and speaking to audiences. “…he [Pasteur] loved to be alone as he worked just as he greatly enjoyed spouting his glorious results to worshipful, brilliant audiences.” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 73 Pasteur was gifted in presenting his ideas. “…Pasteur proved himself much more useful than Leeuwenhoek or Spallanzani—he did excellent experiments, and then had a knack of presenting them in a way to heat up the world about them.” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 94 “He [Pasteur] was an investigator and a marvelous missionary...” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 164 “Pasteur started out, as he so often did, by making mistakes.” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 169 Pasteur sometimes succeeded by ignoring common sense. “With every fact against him Pasteur searched and tried and failed and tried again with that insane neglect of common sense that sometimes turns hopeless causes into victory.” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 170 Pasteur anticipated people who would understand his ideas. “He [Pasteur] was, those days, like old Ludwig van Beethoven writing unplayable horn parts for his symphonies--and then miraculously discovering horn blowers to play those parts.” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 208 If you look for one thing you sometimes find something else. “This history [Microbe Hunters] has already made it clear that microbe hunters usually find other things than they set out to look for....” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 264 To succeed, you have to overcome disappointment. “He [Bruce] had the persistence to claw his way out of the bogs of disappointment….” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 274 Success sometimes comes because you ignore what everyone else accepts as true. “Ross was sublimely ignorant but maybe that was best for he had nothing to unlearn.” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 287 True searching requires loneliness. “The priceless loneliness that is the one condition for all true searching.” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 328 Success requires exactness. Ehrlich: “It is because we are not exact that we fail” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 339 Success in science sometimes comes from a theory that appears not to be true. “Next was that Paul Ehrlich made a lucky stab, that came from reading a theory with no truth in it” DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Achievement 85 Learn, because when you need it, what you have learned will come to bear. “Everything in him was functioning for one purpose, and from experience, with a confident unstated certainty, he knew that when demanded of him all this information would crystallize into the proper reactions.” Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Achievement 321 An unusual motivation for constructing. “…wondered whether or not he too might be falling into the vice of building so that he could take apart….” Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.