“In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.”
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 140.
Of Recreation.
Proverbial Philosophy (1838-1849)
[ART. VII—John Milton, National Review, July 1859, 9, 150–186, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027193559;view=1up;seq=184] (quote from p. 174)
John Milton (1859)
“Sometimes the character of the mistress is inferred from the dress of her maids.”
Interdum animus dominarum ex ancillarum habitu iudicatur.
Letter 54
Letters
The Natural History of Intellect (1893)
Context: Characters and talents are complemental and suppletory. The world stands by balanced antagonisms. The more the peculiarities are pressed the better the result. The air would rot without lightning; and without the violence of direction that men have, without bigots, without men of fixed idea, no excitement, no efficiency.
The novelist should not make any character act absurdly, but only absurdly as seen by others. For it is so in life. Nonsense will not keep its unreason if you come into the humorist's point of view, but unhappily we find it is fast becoming sense, and we must flee again into the distance if we would laugh.
“You can look only when the mind is completely quiet.”
2nd Public Talk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (12 May 1968)
1960s
