Proving

Famous quotes containing the word proving:

    What is
    there in being able
    to say that one has dominated the stream in an attitude of
    self-defense;

    in proving that one has had the experience
    of carrying a stick?
    Marianne Moore (1887–1972)

    The momentary charge at Balaklava, in obedience to a blundering command, proving what a perfect machine the soldier is, has, properly enough, been celebrated by a poet laureate; but the steady, and for the most part successful, charge of this man, for some years, against the legions of Slavery, in obedience to an infinitely higher command, is as much more memorable than that as an intelligent and conscientious man is superior to a machine. Do you think that that will go unsung?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Indeed, the best books have a use, like sticks and stones, which is above or beside their design, not anticipated in the preface, not concluded in the appendix. Even Virgil’s poetry serves a very different use to me today from what it did to his contemporaries. It has often an acquired and accidental value merely, proving that man is still man in the world.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)