
“The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”
“The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”
The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position: (1841)
Context: Man soon finds what he wants to find. If he cannot find it otherwise, he creates it for his special enjoyment: for instance, if a man wants to see a ghost, he need only promulge his wish some night around a decaying fire, with a few alarmed and shocked listeners. Then let him ascend in the dark to a remote chamber, carefully looking over his shoulder every few moments; and if he will not see a ghost, he will feel as if he saw one, and that will be tantamount thereto.
Source: The psychology of interpersonal relations, 1958, p. 81
“O but it is a fine thing to have a finger pointed at one, and to hear people say, "That's the man!"”
At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier "hic est".
Satire I, line 28.
The Satires
1830s, The American Scholar http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm (1837)