Twelve essays [comprising Essays, 1st ser.]. |
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Page 18
... beauty , -the perfect medium never overstepping the limit of charming propriety and grace . Then we have it once more in sculpture , " the tongue on the balance of ex- pression , " those forms in every action , at every age of life ...
... beauty , -the perfect medium never overstepping the limit of charming propriety and grace . Then we have it once more in sculpture , " the tongue on the balance of ex- pression , " those forms in every action , at every age of life ...
Page 19
... they do ; nobler souls with that which they are . " And why ? Because a soul , living from a great depth of be- ing , awakens in us by its actions and words , by its very looks and manners , the same power and beauty B 2 HISTORY . 19.
... they do ; nobler souls with that which they are . " And why ? Because a soul , living from a great depth of be- ing , awakens in us by its actions and words , by its very looks and manners , the same power and beauty B 2 HISTORY . 19.
Page 20
... beauty that a gallery of sculpture , or of pictures , are wont to animate . Civil history , natural history , the history of art , and the history of literature , -all must be explained from individual history , or must remain words ...
... beauty that a gallery of sculpture , or of pictures , are wont to animate . Civil history , natural history , the history of art , and the history of literature , -all must be explained from individual history , or must remain words ...
Page 22
... proportions and perspective of vegetable beauty . In like manner all public facts are to be indivi- dualized , all private facts are to be generalized . Then at once History becomes fluid and true , and Biogra 22 ESSAY I. 22.
... proportions and perspective of vegetable beauty . In like manner all public facts are to be indivi- dualized , all private facts are to be generalized . Then at once History becomes fluid and true , and Biogra 22 ESSAY I. 22.
Page 53
... beauty even into trivial and impure actions , if the least mark of independence appear ? The inquiry leads us to that source , at once the essence of genius , the essence of virtue , and the essence of life , which we call Spontaneity ...
... beauty even into trivial and impure actions , if the least mark of independence appear ? The inquiry leads us to that source , at once the essence of genius , the essence of virtue , and the essence of life , which we call Spontaneity ...
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Common terms and phrases
action affection appear beauty becomes behold better black event Bonduca Cæsar character circle conversation divine doctrine Egypt Epaminondas eternal experience fact fear feel FREDERIKA BREMER friendship genius gifts give Greek hand heart heaven Heraclitus heroism highest hour human imagination instinct intellect labour less light live look lose man's marriage mind moral nature never noble object OVER-SOUL painted pass perception perfect persons Petrarch Phidias Phocion Pindar Plato Plotinus Plutarch poet poetry proverb prudence Pyrrhonism racter relations religion Rome sculpture secret seek seems seen sense sentiment society Socrates Sophocles soul speak spect Spinoza spirit stand stoicism sweet talent teach thee things thou thought tion to-day to-morrow true truth universal Vathek virtue whilst whole wisdom wise words Xenophon youth
Popular passages
Page 45 - It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Page 38 - Man is his own star; and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Commands all light, all influence, all fate; Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
Page 40 - A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, the connexion of events.
Page 42 - What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within?" my friend suggested, — "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child. I will live then from the Devil.
Page 48 - A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Page 67 - Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.
Page 195 - ... counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but misrepresents himself. Him we do not respect, but the soul, whose organ he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make our knees bend. When it breathes through his intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through his will, it is virtue ; when it flows through his affection, it is love.
Page 45 - What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.
Page 138 - Her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought That one might almost say her body thought.
Page 90 - Some damning circumstance always transpires. The laws and substances of nature water, snow, wind, gravitation - become penalties to the thief. On the other hand, the law holds with equal sureness for all right action. Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation.