Editors From The United States

"To speak without metaphor—the engrossing pursuit of Americans is wealth."

"The violet bank, the moss-fringed seat Beneath the drooping tree."

"What in the rising man was industry and economy, becomes in the rich man parsimony and avarice."

"A few hundred dollars will dry the weeping eyes of the most despairing damsel, and make her think the defection of her plighted swain a very lucky speculation—and so instead of breaking her own heart, she very coolly determines to break his credit, comforting herself with the thought that cash is more current than love."

"Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow, And every where that Mary went The lamb was sure to go."

"What a ready passport wealth gives its possessor to the good opinions of this world!"

"And you each gentle animal In confidence may bind, And make them follow at your call, If you are always kind."

"You may indulge any childish propensity with less injury to the intellect than that of gluttony. Eating to excess constantly will deaden or destroy the energies of the mind, while those of the animal are increased, till the immortal becomes perfectly swinish—and yet many tender, delicate mothers seem to think, that to make their children eat is all that is requisite to make them great."

"There is small danger of being starved in our land of plenty; but the danger of being stuffed is imminent, and yet hardly a thought is bestowed on the subject by those who direct the public sentiment."

"Mr. and Mrs. R. persuaded themselves that, while they kept the Sabbath day with pharisaical strictness, the other six days were their own. They strove for earth and sighed for heaven, and failed of enjoyment in the pursuit of either."

"Though youth be past and beauty fled, The constant heart its pledge redeems, Like Box that guards the flowerless bed And brighter from the contrast seems."

"O, beautiful rainbow, All woven of light! There's not in thy tissue, One shadow of night:— It seems as heav'n opened, When thou dost appear, And a visible presence Of angels drew near, And sung the rainbow, The rainbow— The smile of God is here."

"There are few sensations more painful than in the midst of deep grief, to know the season which we have always associated with mirth and rejoicing is at hand."

"It requires but a few threads of hope, for the heart that is skilled in the secret, to weave a web of happiness."

"There is hardly a more heart-thrilling pleasure enjoyed by mortals, than that which parents feel when seeing their child first being able to 'catch knowledge of objects.'"

"Riches are always overestimated; the enjoyment they give is more in the pursuit than the possession."

"Let no one understand me as speaking lightly of that Catechism. It was framed by good men, and doubtless with the best intentions. But there can be no perfect system of faith as expounded by men; and there should be no creed which requires the human mind to render its unqualified assent before it has examined and reflected."

"Happiness is, in truth, a very cheap thing when the heart will be contented to traffic with nature—art has quite a different price."

"Readers soon tire of prefaces, and skip them, and so the labor of writing them is lost."

"All that I intended was, that self-control, in every station and to every individual, is indispensable, if people would retain that equanimity of mind, which depending on self-respect, is the essential of contentment and happiness."

"A day of bliss is quickly told, A thousand would not make us old As one of sorrow doth— It is by cares, by woes and tears, We round the sum of human years——"

"Her husband requested she would read, and she determined to read; her husband wished her to talk, and she resolved to talk. ... Then she had the habit into which your poor conversationalists usually fall, namely, asking questions."

"In this age of innovation, perhaps no experiment will have an influence more important on the character and happiness of our society, than the granting to females the advantages of ... education. The honor of this triumph ... belongs to the men of America. They appear willing to risk the hazard of proving, experimentally, whether that degree of literature, which only can qualify woman to become ... an instructive as well as agreeable friend, be compatible with the cheerful discharge of her domestic duties, and that delicacy of feeling, and love of retirement, which nature so obviously imposes on the sex."

"There is something in the decay of nature that awakens thought, even in the most trifling mind. The person who can regard the changes in the forest foliage,—that can watch the slow circles of the dead leaf, as it falls from the bough of some lofty tree, till it mingles with the thousands already covering the ground beneath, and not moralize is—not a person that I would advise to retire to the country, in search of happiness. He or she had better stay in the city and be amused. Those who cannot think, have, in my opinion, a necessity (which goes very far towards creating a right) for amusement."

"There is no influence so powerful as that of the mother. ... But next in rank and efficacy to that pure and holy source of moral influence, is that of the schoolmaster."

"Americans have two ardent passions; the love of liberty, and love of distinction. These passions mutually stimulate and increase each other ; the enjoyment of equal rights as citizens giving every man a chance of becoming eminent, and that eminence being derived from living under a free government, the Americans are thus necessarily as ambitious of fame as they are tenacious of freedom."

"Some one has called flowers the poetry of earth. They are only its Lyrical poetry. Water is the grand Epic of creation; and there is not a human soul but feels the influence of its majesty, its power or its beauty."

"Why is it that water, so monotonous in its characteristics, should nevertheless, possess a charm for every mind? I believe it is chiefly because it bears the impress of the Creator, which we feel neither the power of time or of man can efface or alter."

"P, Bush, 1905. Nine tubes of moderate size were found in 1898 and 1901, dredged in 30-40 feet in and other localities at Bermuda. They were taken usually from dead but occasionally attached to s, forming an irregularly twisted mass. The surface is sometimes ornamented with five conspicuous, longitudinal carinæ, the two outer ones usually the largest."

"Practically nothing was known of the s of the North Pacific coast before Johnson's valuable reports of 1897 and 1901 — the first entitled 'A Preliminary Account of the Marine Annelids of the Pacific Coast,' the other 'The Polychæta of the Puget Sound Region.' This is especially true of Alaska, a few species only having been recorded north of , British Columbia; therefore the collections made by , of the , and Dr. Wesley R. Coe, of Yale University, as members of the of 1899, are of great interest."

"Now the dark waters at the bow fold back, like earth against the plow; foam brightens like the dogwood now at home, in my own country."

"Good voyages are made both ways. A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind. Even a head wind is better than nothing, No man ever worked his voyage any where, in a dead calm. The best wind for every thing, in the long run, is a side wind. If it blows right aft, how is he to get back? Let no man wax pale, therefore, because of opposition. Opposition is what he wants, and must have, to be good for any thing. Hardship is the native soil of manhood and self-reliance. He that cannot abide the storm, without flinching or quailing — strips himself in the sunshine, and lies down by the wayside, to be overlooked and forgotten. He who but braces himself to the struggle when the winds blow — gives up, when they have done, and falls asleep in the stillness that follows. Did you ever know any body stick to any kind of business, no matter how unpromising, ten years at most, who did not prosper? Not one! no matter how bad it might be at the beginning — if he stuck to it earnestly and faithfully, and tried no thing else — no matter how hard he may have found it sometimes to keep his head above water — still, if he persevered, he always came out bright in the end — didn't he?"

"The northern Arabs of Jahiliyyah practised femal [sic] infanticide. It was prompted by one of two reasons: poverty or fear of shame (Mahmasāni; pp. 54-56). In the first case, some Arabs like Sa'sa'a Bin Najiah and Zeid Ibn Amrou Bin Nufayl, used to offer to buy these female infants from their fathers to save their lives. Sometimes, male infants were eliminated for this reason also, although only after there were no daughters left."

"During a 40-year career, Rutten moved seamlessly across The Times’ — city bureau chief, metro reporter, editorial writer, assistant national editor, book critic and columnist. He was part of The Times’ team of journalists that won the for the paper’s coverage of the . “Original in thought and lyrical in print, his work is witty, well-reported, passionate, yet staunchly nonpartisan,” Times staff writer Thomas Curwen wrote in the paper’s 2005 Pulitzer nomination of Rutten for commentary. Rutten used his “Regarding Media” column to untangle the complexities of L.A., the nation’s s and the eccentricities of s."

"... Mr. Rutten ... really does know what he's talking about when it's come to religion ... Not to make it too intimate, too warm or friendly ... the critical thing is this: what is most important to him is most hateful to me."

"When the social and political history of Los Angeles in the late 20th century comes to be written, it’s likely that two men will stand out as fundamentally transformative leaders. One will be , the five-term mayor who changed the city’s politics and realigned its economic course; the other will be Cardinal , the Hollywood-born prelate who has led what is now America’s largest as archbishop for the last quarter-century, a post from which he will retire Sunday on his 75th birthday, as church law requires."

"One of American politics’ most comforting nostrums is the notion that we always are united by far more than what divides us. It’s a sentiment repeats frequently in his speeches, and both the president and California Gov. are relying on it to help them move toward resolution of government’s worst budgetary crisis in generations. A comprehensive new survey of the American electorate by the nonpartisan , however, indicates that the most politically engaged Americans now are fundamentally opposed to compromise, divided on virtually every basic national question and separated from each other by everything from their race to the choice of where they get their news. Moreover, the increasing numbers of independents, who’ve theoretically pushed national politics to the center with their preference for middle-of-the-road policies, no longer are particularly moderate. California has traversed this sort of political landscape for more than a decade, and now the rest of the nation seems poised to discover that it’s a difficult and discomforting place."

"The Christian worldview teaches that there is a short tether binding beliefs to the values and behaviors that flow from them. If the beliefs are false, then the behavior will eventually — but inevitably — be warped...."

". So, then, you know all about this errand of ours? . As much as you do. I know that General Belcher sent a messenger, asking Deadshot to provide a safe escort for Professor Andover, of Boston, and a party of ladies, to Lone Star Ranch. Andover declined a military escort, but Belcher, notwithstanding the country is quiet, wants us to see them safely through. . Yes, that’s it; but who are Professor Andover and his party . Boston people; with a mission to regenerate the world, Indians especially. . Well, I should think Deadshot would like his errand. He is a Boston man I’ve always understood. . Yes. He came out here with me ten years ago, just out of college, rich, adventurous and restless. City life was too tame for Arthur Cambridge. You know how he took to the life of a scout, and now, under the name of Captain Deadshot, he is the most famous Indian fighter and scout on the plains."

"Suppose every word that every member of this intelligent and most respectable audience has said today:—the merchant to his customers and creditors; the man of leisure to his cronies and companions, the professional man to his clients; even the ladies to their bosom friends at tea or euchre—suppose, I say, that every word you had uttered had been taken down by some marvelous mechanical contrivance, and should be published verbatim tomorrow morning with your names attached showing just what each of you had said. What do you think would happen? I can tell you from observation. You would likely spend next year explaining, denying, apologizing and repenting. Suits for slander would appear on the courthouse shelves as thick as blackberries in August. There would be friendships shattered, confidences dissipated, feuds established, social anarchy enthroned and perhaps this admirable club could never hold another meeting for lack of a quorum of members willing to meet each other in one room."

"Old straight whiskey! That is the drink of life— Consolation, family, friends and wife! So make your glasses ready, Pour fingers three, then—steady! “Here’s good luck to Kentucky and whiskey straight!”"

"The microbe that might have become glorious ounces of brain has been content at first to become merely a little wart of pulp, which finds expression in skill and quickness and more of coveted leisure. There is the next higher terrace and another and another, until finally it becomes a pyramid, ever more fragile and symmetrical, the apex of which is a delicate spire, where the purest intellects are elevated to an ever increasing height in ever decreasing numbers, until in the dizzy altitude above the groveling base below they are wrapped little by little in the cold solitude of incarnate genius burning like suns with their own essence. It is so far up that the eyes deceive and men dispute who it is that stands at the top, but, whoever he may be, he has carried by the force of strength, determination and patient will, the whole swarm of his evil bacteria with him. They swarm through every terrace below, increasing in force as the pyramid enlarges downward. It is the pyramidal bulk of human nature with its finest brain, true to anatomic principles, at the top. That radiance at the summit is the delight and the aspiration of all below."

"I might almost define a lie as being the narrative of a human event that had been printed."

"We wrapped ’em all in a mains’l tight, With twice ten turns of a hawser’s bight, And we heaved ’em over and out of sight— With a yo-heave-ho! And a fare-you-well! And a sullen plunge In the sullen swell Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"

"A flimsy shift on a bunker cot, With a thin dirk-slot through the bosom spot And the lace stiff-dry in a purplish blot. Or was she wench... Or some shuddering maid...? That dared the knife And that took the blade! By God! she was stuff for a plucky jade— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"

"You see I lost two years going to school—from seven to nine years old. I was put out of all the private schools for incorrigible “inattention”—then it was discovered that I had been partially deaf and not guilty—but my schooling ended there and I was turned loose on my father’s library to get an education by main force—got it by reading everything—had read Rousseau’s “Confessions” at 14—and books replaced folks as companions. Wanted to get nearer to books and so hired myself to the country printer and newspaper at 13—great disappointment to the family, my mother having dreams of my becoming a preacher—[hell of a preacher I would have made]. I had meantime begun and finished as much as a page apiece of many stories and books, several epic poems—but one day the Old Man went home to dinner and left me only a scrap of “reprint” to set during his hour and a half of absence. It was six or eight lines nonpareil about the Russian gentleman who started to drive from his country home to the city one evening in his sleigh with his 4 children. Wolves attacked them and one by one he threw the children to the pack, hoping each time thus to save the others. When he had thrown the last his sleigh came to the city gate with him sitting in it a raving maniac. That yarn had been going the rounds of print since 1746. The Old Man was an absent-minded old child, and I knew it, so I turned my fancy loose and enlarged the paragraph to a full galley of long primer, composing the awful details as I set the type and made it a thriller. The Old Man never “held copy” reading proof, so he passed it all right and I saw myself an author in print for the first time. The smell of printer’s ink has never since been out of my hair."

"The great muse of History ranks first in dignity, power and usefulness; but who will say that at her court the Prime Minister is not the Novel which by its lightness, grace and address has popularized history all over the world?"

"The mate was fixed by the bos’n’s pike, The bos’n brained with a marlinspike."

"[About Donald Trump calling media "The enemy of the people"]: That stuff doesn't bother me. I've done a bunch of Trump rallies when I'm sitting in the press pin, and people turn around and boo you, and it's the least threatening thing in the world. If anyone tells you it is, the're lying to you. You walk out and people say "Oh, hey! I saw you in this" and they just take a picture. It's wrestling. It's fictional wrestling. It's part of the whole thing. The man is in the wrestling hall of fame."

"Nothing is less funny these days than the state of movie comedy."