The Style Contest

I had a new trade now, and plenty of business in it. The king was hungry to find out everything that was going to happen during the next thirteen centuries as if he were expecting to live in them. From that time out, I prophesied myself bald-headed trying to supply the demand. I have done some indiscreet things in my day, but this thing of playing myself for a prophet was the worst. Still, it had its ameliorations.

• A prophet doesn't have to have any brains. They are good to have, of course, for the ordinary exigencies of life, but they are no use in professional work.
• It is the restfulest vocation there is.

When the spirit of prophecy comes upon you, you merely take your intellect and lay it off in a cool place for a rest, and unship your jaw and leave it alone; it will work itself: the result is prophecy.

Posted by Mark Twain at 02:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Among the ladies at the dance, Miss Blatchford, she observed, was agreeable enough.

I do not want people to be very agreable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

As to the Miss Blackstones, she did dislike them, but

I was always determined not to like them, so there is the less merit in it.

Yet, for all the pleasure she took in the Manydown ball, it was nothing compared with the grand ball at Ashford that Cassandra had attended. She had danced and supped with a prince! Imagine, the joy of it, to sup with Prince William-Frederick and all the grandest people of Kent. Mr. John Calland would hardly appear such a genius among that exalted company.

Posted by Jane Austen at 02:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the press. That is an improvement, certainly. But still it is very bad and wrong, and demoralising.

1. The tyranny that it proposes to exercise over peoples' private lives seems to be quite extraordinary.
2. The fact is that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything except what is worth knowing.
3. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesmanlike habits, supplies their demands...and what aggravates the mischief is that the journalists who are most to blame are not the amusing journalists who write for what are called Society papers.

The harm is done by the serious, thoughtful, earnest journalists who solemnly, as they are doing at present, will drag before the eyes of the public some incident in the private life of a great statesman, of a man who is the leader of political thought as he is a creator of political force, and invite the public to discuss the incident, to exercise authority in the matter, to give their views, and not merely to give their views, but to carry them into action, to dictate to the man on all other points, to dictate to his party, to dictate to his country; in fact, to make themselves ridiculous, offensive, and harmful. The private lives of men and women should not be told to the public. The public have nothing to do with them at all.

Posted by Oscar Wilde at 02:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct, and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! Is it rendered possible by its vices?

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Posted by George Washington at 02:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)