George Combe American Quotations

They are few in the midst of an overwhelming mass of brute force, and their submission is wisdom; but for a nation like England to submit to be robbed by any invader who chooses to visit her shores seemed to me to be nonsense.

He has a number of curious facts in illustration of the power of mere goodness to protect against outrage.

I called their attention also to the absence of all means of ventilating the hall, remarking that, as we had already breathed the air which it contained for a full hour, it must have lost much of its vital properties and needed to be renewed.

The same practice was continued every evening through the whole course, and with the same success. Many individuals expressed their gratification at having discovered such simple means of relieving the tedium of a long discourse.

We used to speak familiarly of an agent, now do more, who was accustomed to manufacture evidence, and to invent facts in his cases, or at least to alter the aspects of facts to such an extent that they might fairly be viewed as new.

And if these be unprincipled agents who scruple at nothing, he will be a bold man who will deny that there are always to be found men at the bar who lend their services most cordially to back and support these agents in their most desperate cases.

The interval allowed was only five minutes, at the end of which I resumed the lecture; but so refreshing was the effects of the brief rest and, above all, the admission of pure air, that during the second hour the attention was as completely sustained as during the first.

This class of writers comes most into contact with the barristers, because almost the exclusive occupation of the latter is to conduct litigation.

It used to be said of this man that he would gain any case that was in itself debateable, and depended on evidence, if he got money enough.

In Scotland, writers to the signet, whose chief occupation lies in conducting litigations, are men whose natural qualities fit them for this duty.

If he had resisted he would have been slain in an instant. This, and the success of the Quakers, however, is obviously peculiar.