Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:45

Excerpt #1, from Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill

…come to be itself a principal ingredient of the individual’s conception of happiness. The same may be said of the majority of the great objects of human life–power, for example, or fame; except that to each of these there is a certain amount of immediate pleasure annexed, which has at least the semblance of being naturally inherent in them; a thing which cannot be said of money. Still, however, the strongest natural attraction, both of power and of fame, is the immense aid they give to the attainment of our other wishes; and it is the strong association thus generated between them and all our objects of desire, which gives to the direct desire of them the intensity it often assumes, so as in some characters to surpass in strength all other desires. In these cases the means have become a part of the end, and a more important part of it than any of the things which they are means to. What was once desired as an instrument for the attainment of happiness, has come to be desired for its own sake. In being desired for its own sake it is, however, desired as part of happiness. The person is made, or thinks he would be made, happy by its mere possession; and is made unhappy by failure to obtain it. The desire of it is not a different thing from the desire of happiness, any more than the love of music, or the desire of health. They are included in happiness. They are some of the elements of which the desire of happiness is made up. Happiness is not an abstract idea,…

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Excerpt #2, from The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

…“Nick?” He asked again. “What?” “Want any?” “No … I just remembered that today’s my birthday.” I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade. It was seven o’clock when we got into the coupé with him and started for Long Island. Tom talked incessantly, exulting and laughing, but his voice was as remote from Jordan and me as the foreign clamour on the sidewalk or the tumult of the elevated overhead. Human sympathy has its limits, and we were content to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind. Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning briefcase of enthusiasm, thinning hair. But there was Jordan beside me, who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age. As we passed over the dark bridge her wan face fell lazily against my coat’s shoulder and the formidable stroke of thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand. So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight. ———————————————————————— The young Greek, Michaelis, who ran the coffee joint beside the…

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Excerpt #3, from Twenty years at sea: Leaves from my old log

…Kelson,” said Farragut good-naturedly, “go ahead and pull down all the Confederate flags you can find. And, by the way, make my compliments to Captain Alden and tell him we shall proceed up the river at once.” As I went over the side, Captain Boggs of the Varuna came on board to report the circumstances attending the loss of his ship. Off I went in great glee. I landed, left a single boat-keeper in the boat, and with my eleven men walked up to the staff and was just hauling down the flag when my coxswain said, “Good Lord, Mr. Kelson, here comes a regiment of rebs!” I looked, and sure enough, not quite a regiment, but a large body of Confederates in gray were marching down toward us and were already within easy gunshot. I supposed, of course, that we were to be called upon to surrender, and gathered my little body of men close together, hoping to be able to make a successful retreat to the boat, when the Confederates halted and I saw that they were all officers, about forty in number. One stepped out from their midst and approached us; and as I came forward to meet him he saluted and said, “Whom have I the honor of addressing, sir?” He was a fine looking fellow and his uniform was as fresh as though it had just come out of a tailor’s shop, while I was unshaven and was…

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Excerpt #4, from Short Stories for High Schools, by Rosa Mary Redding Mikels

…“Awfully!” said Coppy. “Fonder van you are of Bell or ve Butcha—or me?” “It’s in a different way,” said Coppy. “You see, one of these days Miss Allerdyce will belong to me, but you’ll grow up and command the Regiment and—all sorts of things. It’s quite different, you see.” “Very well,” said Wee Willie Winkie, rising. “If you’re fond of ve big girl, I won’t tell any one. I must go now.” Coppy rose and escorted his small guest to the door, adding—“You’re the best of little fellows, Winkie. I tell you what. In thirty days from now you can tell if you like—tell any one you like.” Thus the secret of the Brandis-Allardyce engagement was dependent on a little child’s word. Coppy, who knew Wee Willie Winkie’s idea of truth, was at ease, for he felt that he would not break promises. Wee Willie Winkie betrayed a special and unusual interest in Miss Allardyce, and, slowly revolving round that embarrassed young lady, was used to regard her gravely with unwinking eye. He was trying to discover why Coppy should have kissed her. She was not half so nice as his own mother. On the other hand, she was Coppy’s property, and would in time belong to him. Therefore it behooved him to treat her with as much respect as Coppy’s big sword or shiny pistol. The idea that he shared a great secret in common with Coppy kept Wee…

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Excerpt #5, from At the Earth’s Core, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

…long you will know much more about it than I," and he grinned as he spoke. The Sagoths have a well-developed sense of humor. “And suppose it is the arena,” I continued; “what then?” “You saw the two who met the tarag and the thag the time that you escaped?” he said. “Yes.” “Your end in the arena would be similar to what was intended for them,” he explained, “though of course the same kinds of animals might not be employed.” “It is sure death in either event?” I asked. “What becomes of those who go below with the learned ones I do not know, nor does any other,” he replied; “but those who go to the arena may come out alive and thus regain their liberty, as did the two whom you saw.” “They gained their liberty? And how?” "It is the custom of the Mahars to liberate those who remain alive within the arena after the beasts depart or are killed. Thus it has happened that several mighty warriors from far distant lands, whom we have captured on our slave raids, have battled the brutes turned in upon them and slain them, thereby winning their freedom. In the instance which you witnessed the beasts killed each other, but the…

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Excerpt #6, from The Tempest, by William Shakespeare

…Mir. Wherefore did they not That hour destroy us? Pros. Well demanded, wench: My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, 140 So dear the love my people bore me; nor set A mark so bloody on the business; but With colours fairer painted their foul ends. In few, they hurried us aboard a bark, Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared 145 A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg’d, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats Instinctively have quit it: there they hoist us, To cry to the sea that roar’d to us; to sigh To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again, 150 Did us but loving wrong. Mir. Alack, what trouble Was I then to you! Pros. O, a cherubin Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven, When I have deck’d the sea with drops full salt, 155…

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Excerpt #7, from The Early History of the Airplane, by Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright

…experiments to accurately determine the amount and direction of the pressure produced on curved surfaces when acted upon by winds at the various angles from zero to 90 degrees. These experiments are not yet concluded, but in general they support Lilienthal in the claim that the curves give pressures more favorable in amount and direction than planes; but we find marked differences in the exact values, especially at angles below 10 degrees. We were unable to obtain direct measurements of the horizontal pressures of the machine with the operator on board, but by comparing the distance traveled in gliding with the vertical fall, it was easily calculated that at a speed of 24 miles per hour the total horizontal resistance of our machine when bearing the operator, amounted to 40 lbs., which is equivalent to about 2-1/3 horse-power. It must not be supposed, however, that a motor developing this power would be sufficient to drive a man-bearing machine. The extra weight of the motor would require either a larger machine, higher speed, or a greater angle of incidence in order to support it, and therefore more power. It is probable, however, that an engine of six horse-power, weighing 100 lbs., would answer the purpose. Such an engine is entirely practicable. Indeed, working motors of one-half this weight per horse-power (9 lbs. per horse-power) have been constructed by several different builders. Increasing the speed of our machine from 24 to 33 miles per hour…

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Excerpt #8, from Astounding Stories of Super

…helps in collecting the fares from recalcitrant passengers. The extra man is called the “secretary,” and he assists materially in giving an impression of haughty pride. The taxi ground to the curb. The secretary reached behind him indifferently and opened the door. Bell did not glance at him. He stepped inside and settled down languidly. “The Beira Mar,” he said listlessly. The taxi started off with a jolt. It is the invariable custom in Rio de Janeiro. And besides, it reminds the passenger that he is merely a customer, admitted to the cab on suffrance, and that he must be suitably meek to those who will presently blandly ignore the amount registered by the meter and demand a fare of from eight to twenty-seven times the indicated amount. * * * * * The cab went shooting down the Avenida do Acre toward the harbor. The Avenida do Acre is officially the Avenida Rio Blanco, and it should be called by that name, only people forget. The Beira Mar, however, is named with entire propriety. It is actually the edge of the sea, and it is probably one of the two or three most beautiful driveways in the world. The cab whirled past the crowded sidewalks. Incredible numbers of…

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Excerpt #9, from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

…every time he raised Cain he got jailed. He was just suited–this kind of thing was right in his line. He got to hanging around the widow’s too much and so she told him at last that if he didn’t quit using around there she would make trouble for him. Well, wasn’t he mad? He said he would show who was Huck Finn’s boss. So he watched out for me one day in the spring, and catched me, and took me up the river about three mile in a skiff, and crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody and there warn’t no houses but an old log hut in a place where the timber was so thick you couldn’t find it if you didn’t know where it was. He kept me with him all the time, and I never got a chance to run off. We lived in that old cabin, and he always locked the door and put the key under his head nights. He had a gun which he had stole, I reckon, and we fished and hunted, and that was what we lived on. Every little while he locked me in and went down to the store, three miles, to the ferry, and traded fish and game for whisky, and fetched it home and got drunk and had a good time, and licked me. The widow she found out where I was by and by, and she sent a man over to try to get hold of me; but pap drove him off with the gun, and it warn’t long after that till I was used to being where I was, and liked it–all but the cowhide part. It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking…

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Excerpt #10, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

…its eyes were getting extremely small for a baby: altogether Alice did not like the look of the thing at all. “But perhaps it was only sobbing,” she thought, and looked into its eyes again, to see if there were any tears. No, there were no tears. “If you’re going to turn into a pig, my dear,” said Alice, seriously, “I’ll have nothing more to do with you. Mind now!” The poor little thing sobbed again (or grunted, it was impossible to say which), and they went on for some while in silence. Alice was just beginning to think to herself, “Now, what am I to do with this creature when I get it home?” when it grunted again, so violently, that she looked down into its face in some alarm. This time there could be no mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it further. So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood. “If it had grown up,” she said to herself, “it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.” And she began thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying to herself, “if one only knew the right way to change them—” when she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of…

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Excerpt #11, from Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., area. Hearings, Part 3

…that—- Mr. O’CONNELL. May I say I had no connection; I was not an officer of the Washington Pension Union. Mr. TAVENNER. I was going to discuss that question, whether or not you were affiliated in any way with the Washington Pension Union. Mr. O’CONNELL. I think as executive secretary of the Democratic Party and as executive secretary of the Progressive Party I made speeches to State conventions of the Washington Pension Union, as did practically all the political leaders of the State of Washington, regardless of the party. I think during a period after my employment as executive secretary of the Democratic Party at the request of a local in Everett I was sent there to make a speech and I think I was–I am pretty sure I was paid expenses and I may have been paid a fee for the speech I made to the group at Everett at that time. Mr. TAVENNER. Was that a convention of the Washington Pension Union? Mr. O’CONNELL. No, as I remember it, the Everett meeting was some kind of a large local meeting that they had, some kind of an event or celebration or something of that kind that I spoke at. It is hard to recollect. It is a long time ago and I have made a lot of speeches all…

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Excerpt #12, from Ethics, by Benedictus de Spinoza

…part or inadequately. Note.–Here, I doubt not, readers will come to a stand, and will call to mind many things which will cause them to hesitate; I therefore beg them to accompany me slowly, step by step, and not to pronounce on my statements, till they have read to the end. PROP. XII. Whatsoever comes to pass in the object of the idea, which constitutes the human mind, must be perceived by the human mind, or there will necessarily be an idea in the human mind of the said occurrence. That is, if the object of the idea constituting the human mind be a body, nothing can take place in that body without being perceived by the mind. Proof.–Whatsoever comes to pass in the object of any idea, the knowledge thereof is necessarily in God (II. ix. Coroll.), in so far as he is considered as affected by the idea of the said object, that is (II. xi.), in so far as he constitutes the mind of anything. Therefore, whatsoever takes place in the object constituting the idea of the human mind, the knowledge thereof is necessarily in God, in so far as he constitutes the essence of the human mind; that is (by II. xi. Coroll.) the knowledge of the said thing will necessarily be in the mind, in other words…

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