No

“ Howland, do you understand the importance of the word No?"
"I think I do, father," Thomas replied. "But is there not danger of my using it too often and thus becoming selfish in all my feelings, and consequently unwilling to render benefits to others?"
"Certainly there is, Thomas. The legitimate use of this word is to resist evil. To refuse to do a good action is wrong." "If any one asks me, then, to do him a favor or kindness, I should not, on any account, say, no." ”

“ Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them thine. ”

“ Secrecy is thus, so to speak, a transition stadium between being and not-being. ”

“ Shall we not, in Thy presence, tear asunder all our foolish desires, fond lingerings and frail leanings towards the cravings of the flesh and the allurements of the world? Shall we not sacrifice before Thee, even as the proofs and pledges of our sincere self-surrender unto Thee, our pet passions, our fond fashions, our absorbing ambitions, our secret schemes, our insatiable indulgences? Shall we not trust into Thy hands all our concerns and interests? ”

“ “What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion, bitterly. “The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done. ”

“ But she rejoined, ‘Tell me the truth of the case, that I may order my affair; and what wantest thou with the mug of water?’ ‘To give the broker a drink,’ answered he; whereupon she exclaimed, ‘There is no power and no virtue but in God the Most High, the Supreme!’ And repeated the following verses:
O thou that seekest parting, stay thy feet: Let clips and kisses not delude thy spright.
Softly, for fortune’s nature is deceit And parting is the end of love-delight. ”

“ Miss P***, I’ve a favor to ask.—If ’tis true,
That “Nothing to Wear,” and “Nothing to Do,”
And “Nothing to Eat,” were all written by you,—
Let those three Nothings content you I pray,
Say nothing yourself; leave me “Nothing to Say.” ”

“ Shall not conscience rise up and sting him on such occasions?——No; thank God there is no occasion, I pay every man his own;—I have no fornication to answer to my conscience;—no faithless vows or promises to make up;—I have debauched no man’s wife or child ”

“ I suggested.
"Well, yes—then—a man—" said she, accepting the suggestion with conscious audacity. "If I like a man, why may I not tell him so?"
"And if he likes you," I added, "why in the world should he not mention the fact?" ”

“ Our actions are in our own hands, but the consequences of them are not. Remember that, my dear, and think twice before you do anything.” ”

“ ourselves we do not owe;
What is decreed must be, and be this so! ”

“ "Not a bit of will—I'm a slave to my emotions, to my likes, to my hatred of boredom, to most of my desires—"
"You are not!" ”

“ I don’t want to prove anything; I merely want to live, to do no one harm but myself. I have the right to do that, haven’t I? ”

“ Why should a stern, condemning voice declare in recesses of my soul, 'You could and should resist'? For years I have been daily yielding to temptation, and conscience as often pronounces sentence against me. ”

“ I grant that there are a thousand conventional cases in which ‘yes’ means ‘no,’ and ‘no’ means ‘yes;’ and they are so ridiculously common that every one is supposed, in politeness, not to mean what he says, or, rather, is not doubted to mean the contrary of what he says. ”

“ You make me talk of a condition of things which is quite, quite impossible. When I say that I like you, I am talking of the present condition of things. I have not the least desire to kill you, or myself, or anybody. ”

“ And long we try in vain to speak and act
Our hidden self, and what we say and do
Is eloquent, is well—but 'tis not true! ”

“ If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; ”

“ Pray, my Pamphilus, can you not, seeing how each woman is, prevail upon yourself to put up with one matter of inconvenience? If every thing else is according to your wish, and such as I take it to be—my son, do grant me this indulgence, and take her back. ”

“ Well, if there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything left for us to do, would there? ”

“ Look at me! do I look like a man to be frightened out of my purpose by a weak, silly girl, already believed insane! Swear to keep what you know a secret, and I have done with you; but unless you take the oath I shall propose———you have heard the consequence. ”

“ I have yet to meet the Sunday-school-book kind who like a man better for not "daring to say No." The difficulty is not in saying No, but in doing it. Nobody will object to your saying it unless you whine it with a timid, shame-faced bleat, or else bray it out with blatant self-righteousness. ”

“ Why so soft, so submissive and yielding? Why is there so much negation and abnegation in your hearts? Why is there so little fate in your looks? And if you will not be fates and inexorable ones, how can you one day- conquer with me? ”

“ But this had been a sin of passion, not of principle, nor even purpose. ”

“ You wanted to look at life for yourself—but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish. You were ground in the very mill of the conventional!” ”

“ From them who full of guile have thee deceived,
That speak false words to thee;
Because thou wilt not strangers' paths pursue,
And hast not gone astray
Along their erring way,
Nor seekest thou new loves, but still art true,
My noble love! ”

“ I believe that there is a man to whom she would not say 'No,' were he to ask the question I never dared to put into words. Not, mind you, that she would, even by a look, do aught to draw a man on for the sake of a petty triumph, or even betray her real feelings unsought. ”

“ Yet, at the same time, he insists that there is in every soul "both a yes and a no," a vision of the good and a contrarium, a hunger for the universal will of God and a hunger for the particular will of self. ”

“ You concede nothing to me and I have to concede everything to you. ”

“ Duty, thou sublime, thou lofty name; which embracest within thee naught beloved bringing flattery; commanding submission, though threatening nothing to move the will, but only setting up a law which of itself finds entry into the breast, and wins for itself unwilling reverence, if not always obedience; before which all desires are dumb, even should they work against it in secret. ”

“ The answer is, that in these and all other determinations of any notion we are attributing to it 'Not-being.' We went in search of Not-being and seemed to lose Being, and now in the hunt after Being we recover both. Not-being is a kind of Being, and in a sense co-extensive with Being. ”

“ What is not supposed to be my concern! [2] First and foremost, the good cause [3] , then God's cause, the cause of mankind, of truth, of freedom, of humanity, of justice; further, the cause of my people, my prince, my fatherland; finally, even the cause of Mind, and a thousand other causes. Only my cause is never to be my concern. "Shame on the egoist who thinks only of himself!" ”

“ To them that object out of conscience, these poor resolutions may afford some relief, if not satisfaction; or, if these slender endeavours fall short of my design, and the reader's desires herein, I shall send them to their labours, who have taken more able and fruitful pains in this subject. To them that object out of a spirit of bitterness and malignity, nothing will suffice. He that is resolved to err, is satisfied with nothing but that which strengthens his error. ”

“ When the time comes, if ever it should, that you have to say 'Yes' or 'No' to a challenge to fight, say 'No' if you can—only take care you make it plain to yourself why you say 'No.' It's a proof of the highest courage, if done from true Christian motives. ”

“ Dumb, thou shalt hear that Voice of thy desire.
Thou that wast brought so low;
And through those lower lives hast risen again,
Kin to the beasts, with power at last to know
Thine own proud banishment and diviner pain; [49]
Courage, O conquering soul! ”

“ Don't speak. Let me think. Or, rather, let me try not to think." ”

“ We know the law of human nature: acts produce habits, habits breed dispositions, dispositions form the will, and the rightly-formed will is character. ”

“ But the evils that surround us—that come to our knowledge and under our very eyes—are real and tangible and dreadful. So much the more reason for our being here;—but so much the less likely that you, gently reared and delicately cared for, will be allowed to risk your delicate nurture in this land of savages. ”

“ Is it wonderful to risk that for which we care nothing?
In truth, nothing matters. This dirty little world full of confusion, and the blue rag, stretched overhead for a sky, is so low we could touch it with our hand. ”

“ And what is a little absurd and inconsistent, they ascribe to these supposed dangerous doctrines, his abstinence from the diversions, and his disapprobation of the manners and maxims of the world. Your opinions, however, I always suspected could not be very pernicious, the effects of which, from the whole tenor of your life, I knew to be so salutary.
"I now find upon full proof that there is nothing in your sentiments but what a man of sense may approve; nothing but what if he be really a man of sense, he will without scruple adopt. ”

“ I will not, I cannot rise till you have heard me. Have I not used every other means? have I not employed every other form of entreaty without avail? and I now kneel at your feet to beseech you to spare yourself and me misery interminable. ”

“ And although silent here about some things, I will not, however, be silent about my morality, which says to me: Live in concealment in order that thou mayest live to thyself. Live ignorant of that which seems to thy age to be most important! ”

“ Of others I have but two servants, whom thou wilt see; and the one is a strange creature, who should scare thee or scathe thee with a good will, but of a good will shall serve nought save me; the other is a woman, a thrall, of little avail, save that, being compelled, she will work woman’s service for me, but whom none else shall compel. ... Yea, but what is all this to thee; or to me that I should tell it to thee? I will not drive thee away; but if thine entertainment please thee not, make no plaint thereof to me, but depart at thy will. ”

“ Which of us all, gentlemen, would be safe, standing at the bar of God or man, if we were not to be judged by the regular current of our lives and conversations, but by detached and unguarded expressions, picked out by malice, and recorded, without context or circumstances, against us? ”

“ Pardon me, sir, to some consciences, at once scrupulous and timid, certain confidences, or rather certain confessions, have the same effect as the poisoned shoulder-knot in the play of that name; the aforesaid consciences think only of getting rid of the secret to a neighboring conscience in order to protect themselves from all responsibility. ”