Quotessence
Home / Books / The Story of My Life

The Story of My Life

Book by Clarence Darrow · 48 quotes · Men, Reading, Ifs

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenReadingIfsImaginationLiteratureBooksLawWritingBornDoeDoneEnjoyFactsHumansHumorInterfereJoyKnowsLifeLines

The Story of My Life Quotes

“It is indeed strange that with all the knowledge we have gained in the past hundred years we preserve and practice the methods of an ancient and barbarous world in our dealing with crime. So long as this is observed and exercised there can be no change except to heap more cruelties and more wretchedness upon those who are the victims of our foolish system.”

WorldYearsLongPastPracticeCrimeStrangeHundredMethodVictimAncientFoolishCrueltyPreservesWretchedness
Book:The Story of My Life
Create image

“Criminal cases receive the attention of the press. The cruel and disagreeable things of life are more apt to get the newspaper space than the pleasant ones. It must be that most people enjoy hearing of and reading about the troubles of others. Perhaps men unconsciously feel that they rise in the general level as others go down.”

PeopleMenFeelsReadingEnjoySpaceLevelsAttentionCasesTroublePressesHearingCriminalsNewspapersPleasantDisagreeable
Book:The Story of My Life
Create image

“Some false representations contravene the law; some do not. ... The sensibilities of no two men are the same. Some would refuse to sell property without carefully explaining all about its merits and defects, and putting themselves in the purchasers' place and inquiring if he himself would buy under the circumstances. But such men never would be prosperous merchants.”

IfsMenTwoWould BeLawCircumstancesSellsPropertyRefuseMeritSensibilityRepresentationDefectsExplainingProsperousMerchantsInquiringPurchasers
Book:The Story of My Life
Create image

“Some false representations contravene the law; some do not. The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business, and, besides, could not be done. The line between honesty and dishonesty is a narrow, shifting one and usually lets those get by that are the most subtle and already have more than they can use.”

DoeDoneUseLawLyingLinesHonestySubtleInterfereRepresentationShiftingDishonesty
Book:The Story of My Life
Create image

“The one I felt and still feel most is lack of time. I used to have time to think, to reflect, my mind and I. We would sit together of an evening and listen to the inner melodies of the spirit, which one hears only in leisure moments when the words of some loved poet touch a deep, sweet chord in the soul that until then had been silent. But in college there is no time to commune with one's thoughts. One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think. When one enters the portals of learning, one leaves the dearest pleasures--solitude, books and imagination--outside with the whispering pines. I suppose I ought to find some comfort in the thought that I am laying up treasures for future enjoyment, but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day.”

HumorTrue To Life
Book:The Story of My Life
Create image

“Our favourite amusement during that winter was tobogganing. In places the shore of the lake rises abruptly from the water's edge. Down these steep slopes we used to coast. We would get on our toboggan, a boy would give us a shove, and off we went! Plunging through drifts, leaping hollows, swooping down upon the lake, we would shoot across its gleaming surface to the opposite bank. What joy! What exhilarating madness! For one wild, glad moment we snapped the chain that binds us to earth, and joining hands with the winds we felt ourselves divine!”

WinterSledding
Book:The Story of My Life
Create image

“For, after all, every one who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone, and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own way. I slip back many times, I fall, I stand still, I run against the edge of hidden obstacles, I lose my temper and find it again and keep it better, I trudge on, I gain a little, I feel encouraged, I get more eager and climb higher and begin to see the widening horizon. Every struggle is a victory. One more effort and I reach the luminous cloud, the blue depths of the sky, the uplands of my desire.”

Inspirational
Book:The Story of My Life
Create image