Arthur Desmond

Good or bad I propose to be something great!

What does it matter whether millions of semi-brainless beings curse or bless my memory? It is equally one to me whether they hang my bones in chains like they did the bones of Cromwell, or build a pyramid of stone over my mouldering …

Why do men go to war? Is it not in some way to better their condition. All these new fangled notions that men fight for other things than their own personal advantage is pure delusion. It is the solid things of life that men are ever …

Why should we not go to the extremes if we desire to play a part in the great world drama?...to go to the extremes is ever symptomatic of genius and greatness. Weakness is to compromise, to hesitate, to be halfhearted.

There is no field of activity for great men without the coming of great wars, great struggles and great revolutions.

Those three divine attributes of a perfect woman: goodness, beauty and wealth.

Most women you know are very much interested in the man who is reputed to be deeply admired by other women.

Women find little pleasure in the society of women.

Women have ever been the stumbling block and betrayers of ambition.

Shall it be said of us in after years that we studied the history of the rise and fall of empires, republics, revolutions , and Caesar's for naught? Shall men say of us we missed our opportunity?.

Let us turn passing events to our own advantage. Out of conditions as they exist let us carve out fortunes and realize our ambitions. In the beginning nature made man a contending animal. Are we not all Greeks or Trojans? We must therefore …

Why should a man deliberately encircle his mind with needless prison walls. No man can reach highest excellence who puts limits to his own thought.

The reason there are no great poets and writers now is because there are no great deeds or heroes to write about. The world is becoming tame and sad and dreary.

[A] reasoned negation of the Ten Commandments—the Golden Rule–the Sermon on the Mount—Republican Principles—Christian Principles—and "Principles" in general. It proclaims upon scientific evolutionary grounds, the unlimited absolutism of …