Word: moment
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...this sort to slip by, I am going to sail next week. As this, then, is probably the last letter that I shall write to you for some time, I shall venture to devote it to a subject which may not be of immediate interest to you at this moment, but which certainly will occupy a great deal of your time when you have penetrated a little deeper into the mysteries of college life. I refer to college societies, clubs, et cetera...
...Harvard pride, like our family pride, is a real safeguard. The name of our dear old college has kept many of her children from disgrace. But family pride often betrays men into the most arrant absurdities. And I am not sure that Harvard pride is not at this moment tending to put a great many Harvard men in a position like that of the silly old Spanish king who preferred to die of asphyxia rather than sacrifice his dignity by moving away from the stove...
...captain of at least one club is anxious to perpetuate the plan of making the six-oared crews inferior to the four-oared. This was done last fall from necessity, but we said then, and we say now, that it is a backward step, - not to be considered a moment by those who have any desire to see our boating interests improved. Men who have such a desire should devote themselves to devising means to raise the first crews of the clubs to eight-oars rather than to degrading them to fours. If nothing can be done to keep...
...found that the American is the most one-sided being on earth. If he is a man of business, he is a man of business and nothing more; his whole time, as well as his whole mind, is filled with his means of livelihood, and he cannot spare a moment for anything not connected with money-making. If he is a man of leisure, and, as rarely happens, has nothing to do, he consistently does, thinks, and accomplishes absolutely nothing. The idea of combining business and pleasure, or leisure and some rational occupation, never occurs...
...talk their shop-talk, talk it with them. If you cannot talk it, listen to them. But never assert yourself in opposition without real reason. Keep your ears open. Remember as much that you hear as possible, and don't speak it out at the wrong moment. Don't swear too often, for it spoils the effect of an oath, and besides it is rather vulgar. Don't use inappropriate slang, - such as "thundering quiet." Don't acquire the horribly unnatural emphasis of New England. And believe me ever