Facility Quotes (2)
Had you or I been born at the Bay of Soldania, possibly our Thoughts, and Notions, had not exceeded those brutish ones of the Hotentots that inhabit there: And had the Virginia King Apochancana, been educated in England, he had, perhaps been as knowing a Divine, and as good a Mathematician as any in it. The difference between him, and a more improved English-man, lying barely in this, That the exercise of his Facilities was bounded within the Ways, Modes, and Notions of his own Country, and never directed to any other or farther Enquiries.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Edited by Peter Nidditch (1975), Book I, Chapter 4, Section 12, 92.
I am trying to get the hang of this new fangled writing machine, but I am not making a shining success of it. However, this is the first attempt I have ever made & yet I perceive I shall soon & easily acquire a fine facility in its use. … The machine has several virtues. I belive it will priont faster than I can write. One may lean back in his chair & work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It do't muss things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper.
Letter (1874). Quoted in B. Blivens, Jr., The Wonderful Writing Machine (1954), 61. Cited in Myron C. Tuman, Word Perfect (1992), 2.
See also: | Attempt (4) | Chair (2) | Fast (3) | Ink (2) | Machine (22) | Paper (7) | Typewriter (5) | Use (7) | Word (31) | Write (11)