Representative Men: Seven LecturesPhillips, Sampson, 1849 - 285 pages |
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action adapted eye animal appears battle battle of Austerlitz battle of Jena beauty believe body Bonaparte century common conversation courage dæmons delight doctrine earth edge of destruction Europe exist expression eyes fact fire force fortune France genius Goethe heaven hero human ideas immense intellectual intelligent Italy kind king knew labor learned less live Lord Lord Elgin mankind masses means merit mind Mirabeau modern Montaigne moral namely Napoleon nature ness never numbers opinion organ party perception persons Phædo philosopher plant Plato Plutarch poet poetic poetry religion saint scholar secret selfish sense sentence sentiment Seven Wise Masters Shakspeare skepticism society Socrates soul spirit stand Swedenborg talent things thought tion transcendent degree troops truth unity universal virtue Vishnu whilst whole wisdom wise write
Popular passages
Page 12 - I cannot tell what I would know; but I have observed there are persons, who, in their character and actions, answer questions which I have not skill to put.
Page 163 - There have been men with deeper insight ; but, one would say, never a man with such abundance of thoughts : he is never dull, never insincere, and has the genius to make the reader care for all that he cares for. The sincerity and marrow of the man reaches to his sentences. I know not any where the book that seems less written. It is the language of conversation transferred to a book. Cut these words, and they would bleed : they are vascular and alive.
Page 86 - The loyalty, well held to fools, does make Our faith mere folly: — Yet he that can endure To follow with allegiance a fallen lord, Does conquer him that did his master conquer, And earns a place i
Page 47 - This defining is philosophy. Philosophy is the account which the human mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world.
Page 28 - ... injurious superiority. Every child of the Saxon race is educated to wish to be first. It is our system ; and a man comes to measure his greatness by the regrets, envies and hatreds of his competitors. But in these new fields there is room : here are no self-esteems, no exclusions. I admire great men of all classes, those who stand for facts, and for thoughts ; I like rough and smooth, " Scourges of God," and
Page 200 - What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel, Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous; and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Page 12 - I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labour and difficulty; he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in largo relations ; whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of error.
Page 236 - The air is full of sounds ; the sky, of tokens ; the ground is all memoranda and signatures, and every object covered over with hints which speak to the intelligent.
Page 172 - What front can we make against these unavoidable, victorious, maleficent forces ? What can I do against the influence of Race, in my history ? What can I do against hereditary and constitutional habits; against scrofula, lymph, impotence ? against climate, against barbarism, in my country ? I can reason down or deny every thing, except this perpetual Belly : feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable.
Page 155 - ... Men are a sort of moving plants, and, like trees, receive a great part of their nourishment from the air. If they keep too much at home, they pine." Let us have a robust, manly life ; let us know what we know, for certain ; what we have, let it be solid, and seasonable, and our own. A world in the hand is worth two in the bush. Let us have to do with real men and women, and not with skipping ghosts.