Catch Phrases
“He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.”
Source: 1900s, Up From Slavery (1901), Chapter I: A Slave Among Slaves
Context: I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery. I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government. Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution. Then, when we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe. This is so to such an extend that Negroes in this country, who themselves or whose forefathers went through the school of slavery, are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those who remained in the fatherland. This I say, not to justify slavery — on the other hand, I condemn it as an institution, as we all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, and not from a missionary motive — but to call attention to a fact, and to show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish a purpose.
“It was not called the Net of a Million Lies for nothing.”
Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 18 (p. 228).
“I hold a cup of wisdom,
But there is nothing within.”
Song lyrics, The Dreaming (1982)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 607.
“At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.”
Totem and Taboo : Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (1913)
1910s
“I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well.”
Source: My Name is Red
The Sixth Presidential Paper — A Kennedy Miscellany : An Impolite Interview
The Presidential Papers (1963)
The dying Monsieur Ouine, p. 243
Monsieur Ouine, 1943
1978 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1978.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)
