Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Upon the whole it is not so bad a thing to be a commoner.
Charles Dickens • A Child's History of England
C’est vraiment une piètre consolation que de se dire d’un homme qui vous a fait mal dîner, ou boire un vin discutable, que sa vie privée est irréprochable. Même l’exercice des vertus cardinales ne peuvent racheter des entrées servies demi-froides, comme lord Henry, parlant un jour sur ce sujet, le fit remarquer, et il y a vraiment beaucoup à dire à
... See moreOscar Wilde • Portrait de Dorian Gray, Le
- Tempérance Ne pas manger jusqu’à l’engourdissement. Ne pas boire jusqu’à l’ivresse. 2. Silence Ne parler que lorsque cela est utile pour soi ou pour les autres. Éviter toute conversation insignifiante. 3. Ordre Que chaque chose ait sa place. Accorder un temps convenable à chaque part de son activité.
Benjamin Franklin, Francis Guévremont, • Conseils pour se rendre désagréable (PR.RI.PF.PHILO. t. 792) (French Edition)
'No,' said the imp, 'that was not the way I did it. All I did was to see that the peasant had more corn than he needed. The blood of the beasts is always in man; but as long as he has only enough corn for his needs, it is kept in bounds.
Leo Tolstoy • The Greatest Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy
It is true Lydgate was constantly visiting the homes of the poor and adjusting his prescriptions of diet to their small means; but, dear me! has it not by this time ceased to be remarkable – is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other? Expendi
... See moreGeorge Eliot • Middlemarch
The best sitting-room at Manor Farm was a good, long, dark-panelled room with a high chimney-piece, and a capacious chimney, up which you could have driven one of the new patent cabs, wheels and all. At the upper end of the room, seated in a shady bower of holly and evergreens were the two best fiddlers, and the only harp, in all Muggleton. In all
... See moreCHARLES DICKENS • THE PICKWICK PAPERS (illustrated, complete, and unabridged)
If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix'd in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error.
Benjamin Franklin • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
I do not value chiefly a man’s uprightness and benevolence, which are, as it were, his stem and leaves. Those plants of whose greenness withered we make herb tea for the sick serve but a humble use, and are most employed by quacks. I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our
... See moreHenry David Thoreau • Walden (AmazonClassics Edition)
It's a capital prescription, sir. I takes it reg'lar, and I can warrant it to drive away any illness as is caused by too much jollity.'