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I never desire to know anything of the detail of political measures, lest even those which I think best should lose anything of their intrinsic value to me, by seeing what low, paltry, personal motives and base machinery and dirty hands have helped to bring them about.
FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Feb. 14, 1874
The large and rapid fortunes by which vulgar and ignorant people become possessed of splendid houses, splendidly furnished, do not of course, give them the feelings and manners of gentle folks.
FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Feb. 12, 1874
The whole gamut of good and evil is in every human being, certain notes, from stronger original quality or most frequent use, appearing to form the whole character; but they are only the tones most often heard. The whole scale is in every soul, and the notes most seldom heard will on rare occasions make themselves audible.
FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Feb. 12, 1875
Simplicity is a great element of good breeding.
FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Jan. 20, 1875
Where is social rest to be found? Nowhere, I rather think, until people are more aware than they are now that prosperity, national as well as individual, is a moral and not a material question. Here, in America, the great question of the identity of the interests of capital and labor will, I imagine, be worked out; and here, I suppose, people will first arrive at the conclusion (I mean masses of people, not individuals) ... that politics are christianity, and that no favorable conditions whatever will stand instead, either for individuals or communities, of obedience to God and the teaching of Christ. It is wonderful for one, who believes this as I do, to watch how perfectly ineffectual all the liberty, all the social advantages of the working-classes in this country are to produce effects, which are moral and not material everywhere.
FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Feb. 5, 1874
Christmas is a season of such infinite labour, as well as expense in the shopping and present-making line, that almost every woman I know is good for nothing in purse and person for a month afterwards, done up physically, and broken down financially.
FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Dec. 31, 1874
His breath like silver arrows pierced the air,
The naked earth crouched shuddering at his feet,
His finger on all flowing waters sweet
Forbidding lay--motion nor sound was there:--
Nature was frozen dead,--and still and slow,
A winding sheet fell o'er her body fair,
Flaky and soft, from his wide wings of snow.
FANNY KEMBLE, Winter
They frequently find the truth who do not seek it, they who do, frequently lose it.
FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Feb. 8, 1875
- I know the very difference that lies
- 'Twixt hallowed love and base, unholy lust;
- I know the one is as a golden spur,
- Urging the spirit to all noble aims;
- The other but a foul and miry pit,
- O'erthrowing it in the midst of its career;
- I know the one is as a living spring
- Of virtuous thoughts, true dealings, and brave deeds--
- Nobler than glory, and more sweet than pleasure--
- Richer than wealth, begetter of more excellence
- Than aught that from this earth corrupt takes birth,
- Second alone in the fair fruit it bears
- To the unmixed ore of true devotion:
- I know that lust is all of this, spelt backwards;
- Fouler than shame, and bitterer than sorrow,
- More loathly than most abject penury--
- Nor hath it fruit or bearing to requite it,
- Save sick satiety and good men's scorn.
FANNY KEMBLE, The Star of Seville: A Drama in Five Acts
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