Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force. What other virtue can there be in fifty-one percent except the brute fact that fifty-one is more than forty-nine? The rule of fifty-one per cent is a convenience, it is for certain matters a satisfactory political device, it is for others the lesser of two evils, and for others it is acceptable because we do not know any less troublesome method of obtaining a political decision. But it may easily become an absurd tyranny if we regard it worshipfully, as though it were more than a political device. We have lost all sense of its true meaning when we imagine that the opinion of fifty-one per cent is in some high fashion the true opinion of the whole hundred per cent, or indulge in the sophistry that the rule of a majority is based upon the ultimate equality of man.

The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n nature warm; The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

To make oneself an object, to make oneself passive, is a very different thing from being a passive object.

With all appliances and means to boot. -King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Poetry is truth dwelling in beauty.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

John Lee is dead, that good old man,-- We ne'er shall see him more: He used to wear an old drab coat All buttoned down before.

Nowhere to fall but off; Nowhere to stand but on.

Repartee is perfect when it effects its purpose with a double edge. It is the highest order of wit, as it indicates the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius, at a moment when the passions are roused.

Any man who inflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.

I wonder if ever a song was sung but the singer's heart sang sweeter! I wonder if ever a rhyme was rung but the thought surpassed the meter! I wonder if ever a sculptor wrought till the cold stone echoed his ardent thought! Or, if ever a painter with light and shade the dream of his inmost heart portrayed!

Having more money does not insure happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

Warm weather fosters growth: cold weather destroys it. Thus a man with an unsympathetic temperament has a scant joy: but a man with a warm and friendly heart overflowing blessings, and his beneficence will extend to posterity. -Hung Tzu-Cheng.

This book fills a much-needed gap.

O Ceremony, show me but thy worth? What is thy soul of adoration? Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, Creating awe and fear in other men?

If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life.

Journalism is literature in a hurry.

There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now come.

There are people who have money and people who are rich.