Contracting State

Famous quotes containing the words contracting and/or state:

    When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc., stretching or contracting every speaker to certain rules of theirs ... I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural, as much as the voice of a brute or an interjection: first of all, mother tongue; and last of all, artificial or father tongue. Essentially your truest poetic sentence is as free and lawless as a lamb’s bleat.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    In his sleeves, which were long,
    He had twenty-four packs,—
    Which was coming it strong,
    Yet I state but the facts;
    And we found on his nails, which were taper,
    What is frequent in tapers,—that’s wax.
    Bret Harte (1836–1902)