Life and Existence

The riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voice of friends and to say to one’s self: “The work is done.” But just as one says that, the answer comes: “The race is over, but the work never is done while the power to work remains.” The canter that brings you to a standstill need not be only coming to rest. It cannot be, while you still live. For to live is to function. That is all there is in living.

 

I do not think we need trouble ourselves with the thought that my view depends upon differences of degree. The whole law does so as soon as it is civilized. . . . Negligence is all degree—that of the defendant here degree of the nicest sort; and between the variations according to distance that I suppose to exist and the simple universality of the rules in the Twelve Tables of the Leges Barbarorum, there lies the culture of two thousand years.

 

The law, wherein, as in a magic mirror, we see reflected, not only our own lives, but the lives of all men that have been!

 

Soldiers! When it is announced that a respected and beloved leader has died for our freedom in the course of a battle, do not grieve, do not lose hope! Observe that anyone who dies for his country is a fortunate man, but death takes what it wants, indiscriminately, in peacetime as well as in war. It is better to die with freedom than without it.

 

Preach the gospel all the time—if necessary, use words.

 

I am known in parts of the world by people who have never heard of Jesus Christ.

 

I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.

 

I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.

 

Proud and insolent youth, prepare to meet thy doom.

 

He watched, stunned, and while he was watching, Rick died. He could tell when it happened. There was a difference.

 

Men are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if you don’t make it of wood, you must make it of words.

An old author is constantly rediscovering himself in the more or less fossilized productions of his earlier years.

An old author is constantly rediscovering himself in the more or less fossilized productions of his earlier years.

To rest upon a formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.

To rest upon a formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.

Time and space are fragments of the infinite for the use of finite creatures.

[I]t is never possible for a novelist to deny time inside the fabric of his novel: he must cling, however lightly, to the thread of his story, he must touch the interminable tapeworm, otherwise he becomes unintelligible, which, in his case, is a blunder.

If your life at night is good, you think you have / Everything; but, if in that quarter things go wrong, / You will consider your best and truest interests /

Earth reserves no blessing / For the unblessed of Heaven!

The great end of being is to harmonize man with the order of things, and the church has been a good pitch-pipe, and may be so still.

The great end of being is to harmonize man with the order of things, and the church has been a good pitch-pipe, and may be so still.

Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.

Hardship is vanishing, but so is style, and the two are more closely connected than the present generation supposes.

A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety-nine retreat: that is progress.