“In eloquence, the great triumphs of the art are when the orator is lifted above himself; when consciously he makes himself the mere tongue of the occasion and the hour, and says what cannot but be said. Hence the term "abandonment" to describe the self- surrender of the orator. Not his will, but the principle on which he is horsed, the great connection and crisis of events, thunder in the ear of the crowd.” ArtSaidSelfTermHoursPrinciplesEventsConnectionsEarsCrisisMereCrowdsTongueSurrenderOccasionsTriumphThunderAbandonmentEloquenceOrators Book:The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude Source: The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude
“A man got up [after one of Huxley's 'sermons'] and said 'they had never heard anything like that in Norwich before'. Never 'did Science seem so vast and mere creeds so little'.” ThinkingMenLittlesSaidSeemsHeardMereCreedsSermonsHuxleyNorwich Author:Adrian Desmond
“Information wants to be free.' So goes the saying. Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, seems to have said it first.I say that information doesn't deserve to be free.Cybernetic totalists love to think of the stuff as if it were alive and had its own ideas and ambitions. But what if information is inanimate? What if it's even less than inanimate, a mere artifact of human thought? What if only humans are real, and information is not?...Information is alienated experience.” IfsThinkingWantFirstsHumansSaidIdeasRealWholeSeemsEarthStuffAliveInformationAmbitionDeserveMereBrandsWhat IfFoundersArtifactsHuman Thought Book:You Are Not a Gadget Source: You Are Not a Gadget
“Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. When they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal discretion, a discretion to be exercised in discerning the course prescribed by law; and, when that is discerned, it is the duty of the Court to follow it. Judicial power is never exericised for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Judge; always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Legislature; or, in other words, to the will of the law.” GivingSaidLawPurposeCoursesEffectsJudgingDutyExerciseInstrumentsCourtMereLegislatureDiscretionJudicialDiscerningJudicial Power Author:John Marshall