Vulgar words in Table Talk - Essays on Men and Manners (Page 1)
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 138 ~ ~ ~
Richardson, who is very tenacious of the respect in which the profession ought to be held, tells a story of Michael Angelo, that after a quarrel between him and Pope Julius II., 'upon account of a slight the artist conceived the pontiff had put upon him, Michael Angelo was introduced by a bishop, who, thinking to serve the artist by it, made it an argument that the Pope should be reconciled to him, because men of his profession were commonly ignorant, and of no consequence otherwise; his holiness, enraged at the bishop, struck him with his staff, and told him, it was he that was the blockhead, and affronted the man himself would not offend: the prelate was driven out of the chamber, and Michael Angelo had the Pope's benediction, accompanied with presents.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 313 ~ ~ ~
I saw him many years ago when he treated the masterly sketches he had by him (one in particular of the group of citizens in Shakespeare 'swallowing the tailor's news') as 'bastards of his genius, not his children,' and seemed to have given up all thoughts of his art.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,030 ~ ~ ~
By this method you neutralise all distinction of character--make a pedant of the blockhead and a drudge of the man of genius.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,578 ~ ~ ~
If he were a mere blockhead, it would not signify; but he thinks himself a _knowing hand,_ according to the notions and practices of those with whom he was brought up, and which he thinks _the go_ everywhere.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,718 ~ ~ ~
Aye, that he is a knight: and so might you have been too, if you had been aught else but an ass, as well as some of your neighbours.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,279 ~ ~ ~
Wells then spoke of Lucius Apuleius and his Golden Ass, which contains the story of Cupid and Psyche, with other matter rich and rare, and went on to the romance of Heliodorus, Theagenes and Chariclea and in it the presiding deities of Love and Wine appear in all their pristine strength, youth, and grace, crowned and worshipped as of yore.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,343 ~ ~ ~
When a visitor enters or leaves a room, it is not inquired whether he is rich or poor, whether he lives in a garret or a palace, or comes in his own or a hackney coach, but whether he has a good expression of countenance, with an unaffected manner, and whether he is a man of understanding or a blockhead.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,421 ~ ~ ~
This is true enough; but you must not say so, under a heavy penalty--the displeasure of pedants and blockheads.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,647 ~ ~ ~
They not only _damn_ the work in the lump, but vilify and traduce the author, and substitute lying abuse and sheer malignity for sense and satire.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,889 ~ ~ ~
If he had a piece likely to succeed, coming out under all advantages, he would damn it by some ill-timed, wilful jest, and lose the favour of the public, to preserve the sense of his personal identity.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 5,085 ~ ~ ~
The house of the latter is a sort of curiosity shop or _menagerie,_ where all sorts of intellectual pretenders and grotesques, musical children, arithmetical prodigies, occult philosophers, lecturers, _accoucheurs,_ apes, chemists, fiddlers, and buffoons are to be seen for the asking, and are shown to the company for nothing.