Word: onely
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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...influence exerted upon society by the silent man is irresistible; his very silence is a proof of wisdom. But let him break through his reserve, and his doom is sealed; henceforth he has lost his dignified-exaltation, and become one of the mobile vulgus. There is deeply implanted in the human heart a feeling that to speak, to write, is a sign of weakness, of lack of self-reliance. It shows that one's own approbation is not sufficient unless that of others be superadded. And there is a dim belief that the speaker, as Socrates says, is moved...
...superior being. He was a type of that class which George Eliot irreverently styles the "Divine Cow." In my acquaintance with him he had always looked with so profound and serious an air upon my little attempts at conversation, that I had come to revere him exceedingly. But one memorable evening my idol fell from his lofty pedestal. I saw him descend to the telling of jokes, and to would-be imitation of a funny character. Alas! I went home that night with "Ilium fuit," "Ilium fuit," ringing in my ears, varied now and then with the more modern refrain...
...what words in his life he most regrets, those which he uttered or those which he left unuttered, and you will receive only one reply. No, my gushing friend, the silent people are those who rule this world, and all the rest of us are but puppets in their hands...
...one beware how he ventures to assume this character, if it is not inborn. It is not an easy part to assume, and all labor will be in vain unless there exist a priori some natural adaptation for it. One must learn to have perfect control of himself, his watchfulness must never relax; for one little word, one involuntary smile, may destroy a reputation which it has taken years to acquire. The world does not ask for truth, does not ask if a character be genuine; but it does ask that it be consistent with itself...
Hatim Tai, the Oriental exemplar of sympathy and self-sacrifice, one day happened upon a wolf pursuing a doe, and, unwilling to allow the wolf to go hungry, though wishing to save his prey from his jaws, Hatim cut a slice from his own thigh to satisfy the appetite of the beast...