Word: absurd
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...course it would be absurd to say that there are none now in Harvard to sneer at close students, and no close students whose ways deserve to be rebuked. But an acquaintance of some extent among the different classes now in college, and a knowledge of what the prominent men are doing to get and retain the esteem of their classmates, give reason to assert that the number of both these sets is becoming smaller, or, if preferred, the two sets are discovering each other's worth and adopting each other's virtues. Nowhere is this change more clearly indicated...
...this humiliation at the hands of the haughty class of '77, - that I, who solemnly promised with the rest to abstain from hazing, should myself be roughed, - is indeed a galling thought! Perhaps, then, the Sophomore theory that "the conceit must be taken out of Freshmen" was not so absurd a one after all. Who knows but that the propensity to haze was a divinely seated instinct, created for good purposes, and that the College has done an unwise thing in attempting to root it out? Surely the Freshman's mind, when he comes here, is in a somewhat critical...
...purify our politics." In our own opinion honest men are most to be desired by all who hope for a better administration of public affairs, yet an appeal to the honest men of the country to come forward to the rescue would probably be more futile and certainly more absurd than one to the students; for what man, and especially what politician, is there who will not answer to the name of "honest"? Appeals to classes and to class feeling of any sort are the tools of the demagogue, of which none but he knows thoroughly...
...expense of his columns, so hungry for copy. The most favorite subject seems to be "Popular Men"; and these rather indefinite creatures are made the objects of sarcasm and raillery, and the system of society elections and class politics meets with vehement abuse. Writing on such matters is absurd. We know, all of us, that our "systems," like all others, have their faults; we know, too, that to attempt to revolutionize them would be ridiculous. As matters stand at present, classes get on smoothly enough; then why try, by circulating discontented and inflammatory ideas, to create dissension and ill-feeling...
...have any more weight than the certificates of those who are not so old? Ought one class of students to be excused from church at their own request, while another class is not? If a line must be drawn somewhere, then extend the privilege to every student. It is absurd to maintain that this week one is incompetent to judge of his moral welfare, but the next week competent to do so. One student is, as a general rule, no better qualified to decide upon such matters than another. A question of age should no more be taken into consideration...