Ralph Waldo Emerson, on 24 October 1840, wrote in his journal:

What a pity that we cannot curse and swear in good society! Cannot the stinging dialect of the sailors be domesticated? It is the best rhetoric, and for a hundred occasions those forbidden words are the only good ones. My page about 'Consistency' would be better written thus: Damn Consistency!

(cf. RalphWaldoEmerson (5 Aug 2003), ...)

TopicLiterature - TopicLanguage - TopicHumor - 2007-06-05

(correlates: UnknownFriend, EmersonOnSelfImprovement, PoorDesigns, ...)