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 . . . see: "THE CIVIL WAR" see: "SLAVERY" see: "POLITICS" for related links see: "PEOPLE" for related links see: "FREEDOM" for related links - Abraham Lincoln and his law partner, William Herndon, were arguing the question of whether or not any person ever performs a completely unselfish act. They were riding together through the country and came upon a pig caught in a rail fence. Herndon pretended not to see the animal and passed on by. But Lincoln stopped, got down and waded through a muddy ditch, pulled the rails apart and released the pig. Herndon pointed triumphantly to Lincoln's muddy shoes and spattered trousers, saying, "You see now I am right. Men are capable of performing unselfish deeds." "Oh no," replied Lincoln, "if I had left that pig in the fence, I would have worried about him all night. I would have been so busy wondering if someone had rescued him, or if he was still held between those rails, that I would have lost my sleep. For my own peace of mind, I had to rescue the animal. So, you see, I was merely being selfish." --Charles Livingston Allen (1913—2005) American minister. _The Greatest of These is Love_ [1986], "Love Overcomes Destructive Emotions" - - In his legal practice Lincoln was never greedy for fees and discouraged unnecessary litigation. A man came to him in a passion, asking him to bring a suit for $2.50 against an impoverished debtor. Lincoln tried to dissuade him, but the man was determined upon revenge. When he saw that the creditor was not to be put off, Lincoln asked for and got $10 as his legal fee. He gave half of this to the defendant, who thereupon willingly confessed to the debt and paid up the $2.50, thus settling the matter to the entire satisfaction of the irate plaintiff. --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.] - - Like all strong Presidents he enraged the Congress by sweeping and arbitrary acts that went, much of the time, beyond the Constitution—or in any case beyond the balance of presidential and Congressional authority that is inevitably tipped in the President's favor in time of war. Indeed, until he was dead, Lincoln was never wildly popular. --Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004) British-born American broadcater and journalist. _America_ [1973] I think of a family who started a farm on rocky soil in Kentucky: a dim, shiftless, rolling stone of a husband married to an illegitimate girl from the Virginia mountains. He tried five or six farms and kept moving on, a man afflicted, we'd say today, with a character neurosis who thought that by picking a new place, like a movie actress who keeps picking a new husband, he would somehow change the plot. He didn't, of course. They plodded into Indiana and did a little better. In time, they had a barn and a few animals, a little corral, a rail fence, and they planted corn and flax and beans. But then the neighbors went down with "the milk sickness," picked up from cows that chewed on snakeroot. Our farmer's wife died. So the vagabond father and his dour son moved on to a new state and new ground. the son passing from an almost animal boyhood into a bleak manhood. Yet, out of that frail women and her listless husband and the poorest ground, there came something strange and wholly admirable: the slow-moving son who seized the Republic and held it through its first cataclysm—Abraham Lincoln. --Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004) British-born American broadcater and journalist. _America_ [1973] - In Washington the most striking thing is the absence of personal loyalty to the President. It does not exist. He has no admirers, no enthusiastic supporters, none to bet on his head. If a Republican convention were to be held tomorrow, he would not get the vote of a state. --Richard Henry Dana (1815—1882) American lawyer and author. In a letter to Charles Francis Adams [March 1863]. [Of Abraham Lincoln:] His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold a memory of a wrong. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. _Letters and Social Aims_ [1876] "Greatness" I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. --Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865) American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865]. In a letter to A.G. Hodges [4 April 1864]. [Of Abraham Lincoln:] It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested. --James Russell Lowell (1819—1891) American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat. _The North American Review_ [January 1864] The President is nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. ... I went to the White House directly after tea where I found the original Gorilla about as intelligent as ever. What a specimen to be at the head of our affairs now! --George B. McClellan (1826—1885) American Union general during the Civil War. Quoted in William Starr Myers _A Study in Personality: General George Brinton McClellan_ [1934]. When Abraham Lincoln was murdered The one thing that interested Matthew Arnold Was that the assassin Shouted in Latin As he lept on the stage. This convinced Matthew That there was still hope for America. --Christopher Morley (1890—1957) American journalist, novelist, and poet. _Points of View_, l. I [1923] I will make a prophecy that may now sound peculiar. In fifty years, perhaps much sooner, Lincoln's name will be inscribed close to Washington's on this Republic's roll of honor. --Carl Schurz (1829—1906) German-born American politician, journalist, and reformer. In a letter to Theodor Petrasch [12 October 1864]. O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. --Walt Whitman (1819—1892) American poet. "O Captain! My Captain!" [1865] - GETTYSBURG ADDRESS [19 November 1863] Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who stuggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note or long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they, who fought here, have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. & note: A government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people. --Theodore Parker (1810—1860) American minister of the Unitarian church. At the Anti-Slavery Convention [29 September 1850].   LIQUOR . . see: "ALCOHOL" for related links Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning; Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning. --Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774) Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist. _She Stoops to Conquer_ [1773] Take that liquor away; I never touch strong drink. I like it too well to fool with it. --Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (1824—1863) Confederate general in the American Civil War; nickname asssigned at the first battle of Bull Run [1861]. Responding to an offer of a mint julep, quoted by George E. Pickett, in a letter to his wife [3 June 1864]. I must entreat you to be scrupulous in the use of strong liquors. One night's drunkenness may defeat the labors of forty days well employed. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. _Letter to Boswell_ [30 March 1784] I used to work in Chicago, At a convenience store. I used to work in Chicago, I did but I don't anymore. A lady walked in With some porcelain skin And I asked her what she came in for. "Liquor," she said, And lick her I did, And I don't work there anymore. --"I Used to Work in Chicago" Music by Garrison Keillor, Lyrics, Traditional Performed by Woody Harrelson & John C. Reilly from the motion picture "A Prairie Home Companion." Candy is dandy But liquor is quicker. --Ogden Nash (1902—1971) American writer of humorous poetry. "Reflection on Ice-Breaking" [1931] ----- besot (verb) [bi-'saht] To muddle or stupefy, as with liquor— or love; to infatuate, to make a sot of.  LISTENING . . see: "COMMUNICATION" for related links see: "KNOWLEDGE" for related links Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. ... If you want to influence someone, listen to what he says. --Dr. Joyce Brothers [Joyce Diane Bauer] (b. 1927) American psychologist and advice columnist. Attributed in William Safire, Leonard Safir (eds.) _Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice_, p. 221 [1989]. When we are in the company of sensible men, we ought to be doubly cautious of talking too much, lest we lose two good things, their good opinion, and our own improvement; for what we have to say, we know, but what they have to say, we know not. --C.C. Colton (1780—1832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CCXXXVI [1828 ed.] Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. --Dinah Mulock Craik (1826—1887) English writer and poet. _A Life for a Life_, ch. 16 [1859] To do all the talking and not be willing to listen is a form of greed. --attributed to Democritus of Abdera (c. 460 B.C.—c. 370 B.C.) Greek philosopher. Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings. --Miles Franklin [Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin] (1879—1954) Australian writer and feminist. _Childhood at Brindabella: My First Ten Years_ [written 1952-3, pub. 1963] Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again. --Andre Gide (1869—1951) French novelist and critic who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. _Le traite du Narcisse_ [1891] The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much. --attributed to Germain G. Glidden (1913—1999) National squash racquets champion in the 1930's and 1950's; founder of the National Art Museum of Sport, based in Indianapolis. ^ A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day, 30,000 to a man's 15,000. The wife replied, "The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men." The husband then turned to his wife and asked, "What?" ^ Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. --Robert Heinlein (1907—1988) American science-fiction writer. _Time Enough for Love_ [1973] "Intermission" [Professor Wagstaff, (Groucho Marx) :] I don't know what they have to say. It makes no difference anyway. Whatever it is, I'm against it. --"Horse Feathers" [1932 movie] Screenplay by Will B. Johnstone, Bert Kalmar, S.J. Perelman, and Harry Ruby. The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. --Hubert H. Humphrey (1911—1978) 38th vice-president of the United States [1965-69] and liberal senator [1949-65, 1971-78]. [1968 speech to the National Student Association.] When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen. --E.F. Hutton brokerage advertising slogan The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried when you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for the want of a teller but for the want of an understanding ear. --Stephen King (b. 1947) American author known for horror novels. "The Body" in _Different Seasons_ [1982]. It is a way of calling a man a fool when no attention is given to what he says. --Sir Roger L'Estrange (1616—1704) English journalist and pamphleteer. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 27 [1886]. To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. _Maxims_ [1665] Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered from the time of the seven sages of Greece to that of Poor Richard, have prevented a single foolish action. --Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800—1859) English politician and historian. _Machiavelli_ [March 1827] If you want to talk, first ask a question, then listen. --Antonio Machado (1875—1939) Spanish poet. Attributed in n Joseph Goldstein _One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism_, p. 66 [2002]. No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why. --Mignon McLaughlin (1913—1983) American journalist and author. Attributed in Ashton Applewhite et al _And I Quote: The Definitive Collection..._, p. 49 [1992]. Cultivate the habit of attention and try to gain opportunities to hear wise men and women talk. Indifference and inattention are the two most dangerous monsters that you ever meet. Interest and attention will insure to you an education. --Robert A. Millikan (1868—1953) American physicist - winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize for physics. Attributed in William Safire & Leonard Safir _Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice_, p. 392 [1989]. A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something. --Wilson Mizner (1876—1933) American playwright. Quoted in Evan Esar _The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations_ [1949]. - A Wise Old Owl by Edward Hersey Richards (1874—1957) Amercan poet A Wise Old Owl lived in an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard: Why can't we all be like that bird? - Before marriage, a man will go home and lie awake all night thinking about something you said; after marriage, he'll go to sleep before you finish saying it. --Helen Rowland (1875—1950) American writer. _A Guide to Men_ [1922] "First Interlude" Needless to say, the President is correct. Whatever it was he said. --Donald Rumsfeld (b. 1932) American Secretary of Defense [1975-77] & [2001-06]. At a Pentagon briefing, as quoted in Ross Petras & Kathryn Petras _The Lexicon of Stupidity_, p. 42 [2005]. Do as I say, not as I do. --John Selden (1584—1654) English historian. _Table Talk_ [1689] I am just a poor boy Though my story's seldom told I have squandered my resistance For a pocketful of mumbles Such are promises All lies and jest Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. --Simon and Garfunkel _The Boxer_ (song) [1969] [Lyrics by Paul Simon (b. 1941)] If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you know already. --Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754—1838) French statesman. _Reminiscences of Prince Talleyrand; Edited from the Papers of the Late M. Colmache, Private Secretary to the Prince_ [2 vol., 2nd ed., 1850] The best rules to form a young man are to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it. --Sir William Temple (1628—1699) English statesman and diplomat. Quoted in John Timbs _Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors_, p. 196 [1829]. The true male never yet walked Who liked to listen when his mate talked. --Anna Wickham [Edith Alice Mary Harper] (1884—1947) English poet. "The Affinity", l. 14 in _The Contemplative Quarry_ [1915]. -- Children should never listen to Muzak -- too much sax and violins. --anon. My girlfriend told me I should be more affectionate. So I got two girlfriends. --anon. --- "How did the accident happen?" the doctor asked the patient. "The sign said 'Stop, Look, Listen', and while I was doing that a train ran over me." . . see: "KNOWLEDGE" for related links The dream of the American male is for a female who has an essential languor which is not laziness, who is unaccompanied except by himself, and who does not let him down. He desires a beautiful, but comprehensible, creature who does not destroy a perfect situation by forming a complete sentence. --E.B. [Elwyn Brooks] White (1899—1985) American essayist and literary stylist. "Notes of our Times" in _The Second Tree from the Corner_ [1954]. . . see: "KNOWLEDGE" for related links ^ Agatha Christie (1891—1976) British writer of detective fiction. In 1977, a young Arab girl was flown to England in a semiconscious state and admitted to a London hospital. The doctors were baffled by her condition, which continued to deteriorate over the next five days. On the sixth day, the child began to lose her hair. The nurse watching over her was suddenly struck by the similarity of her symptoms to those of a series of murder victims in Agatha Christie's 'The Pale Horse,' which she was reading at the time. The fictional characters had been killed by thallium poisoning; subsequent tests on the Arab girl revealed that she had high levels of thallium in her urine. Three weeks later, the child was fit enough to return home, and the case was written up in the 'British Journal of Hospital Medicine,' with a note of thanks to the observant nurse and the late Dame Agatha Christie. --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly, than to know them only here and there; yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have neither time nor means to get more. Let every bookworm, when in any fragrant, scarce old tome he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834) English poet, critic, and philosopher. Attributed in Catherine Sinclair _The Kaleidoscope of Anecdotes and Aphorisms_ [1851]. Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be read once. --Cyril Connolly (1903—1974) English writer. _Enemies of Promise_ [1938] Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way around. --David Lodge (b. 1935) English novelist. _The British Museum is Falling Down_, ch. 4 [1965] Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him. --Vladimir Nabokov [pen name Vladimir Sirin] (1899—1977) Russian-born American novelist. _Lectures on Literature_ [1980] "Good Readers and Good Writers" It seems that the analysis of character is the highest human entertainment. And literature does it, unlike gossip, without mentioning real names. --Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904—1991) Polish-American novelist who won the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature. Interview with Richard Burgin in _The New York Times Magazine_ [26 November 1978]. Shakespeare, Madam, is obscene, and thank God, we are sufficiently advanced to have found it out! --Frances Trollope (1780—1863) English author [mother of Anthony Trollope.] Quoting a remark made to her by an American in: _Domestic Manners of the Americans_ [1832]. Classic: A book which people praise and don't read. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" in _Following the Equator_ [1897]. ERNEST: What is the difference between literature and journalism? GILBERT: Oh! journalism is unreadable, and literature is not read. --Oscar Wilde (1854—1900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _Intentions_ [1891] "The Critic as Artist" Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today. --attributed to Herman Wouk (b. 1915) American novelist ----- agon [AH-gahn; ah-GOHN], noun: A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work. protagonist (noun) 1. The main character in a novel, play, story, or other literary work. 2. The main character in ancient Greek drama; the first actor who interacted with the chorus. . . see: "KNOWLEDGE" for related links Nothing I wrote in the thirties saved one Jew from Auschwitz. --attributed to W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973) English author The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. ... If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is worth any number of old ladies. --William Faulkner (1897—1962) American novelist. In "Paris Review" [Spring 1956]. ;void(0)) LITTERING . . see: "ENVIRONMENT" see: "PIGS" see: "POLLUTION" The early rising cow-boys were off again to their work; and those to whom their night's holiday had left any dollars were spending these for tobacco, or cartridges, or canned provisions for the journey to their distant camps. Sardines were called for, and potted chicken, and devilled ham: a sophisticated nourishment, at first sight, for these sons of the sage-brush. But portable ready-made food plays of necessity a great part in the opening of a new country. These picnic pots and cans were the first of her trophies that Civilization dropped upon Wyoming's virgin soil. The cow-boy is now gone to worlds invisible; the wind has blown away the white ashes of his camp-fires; but the empty sardine box lies rusting over the face of the Western earth. --Owen Wister (1860—1938) American writer of western novels. _The Virginian_ [1902] ----- detritus [dih-TRY-tuhs], noun; plural detritus: 1. Loose material that is worn away from rocks. 2. Hence, any fragments separated from the body to which they belonged; any product of disintegration; debris. graffito (noun - pl., singular is graffiti) Something written, scratched, or drawn on a wall or the like, esp. in a public place by a private individual not hired or authorized to do so. end page | KARMA - KENTUCKY | KINDNESS | KILL - KU KLUX KLAN | KNOWLEDGE | LABELS - LAS VEGAS | LANGUAGE | LATIN - LAUGHTER | LAW (THE) - LAWYERS | LAZINESS - LEGACY | LEARNING | LEISURE - LIBERALS | LIBERTY - LIBRARY | LIES / LIARS / LYING | LIFE - PAGE 1 (A-L) | LIFE - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | LIFESTYLE - LIMITATIONS | LINCOLN (ABRAHAM) - LITTERING | LIVE - LONDON | LONELINESS - LOUISIANA | LOVE - PAGE 1 (A-L) | LOVE - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | LOVE & MARRIAGE - LYNCHING | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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