Quotes

Pride and jealousy there was in his eye, for his life had been spent in asserting rights which were constantly liable to invasion; and the prompt, fiery, and resolute disposition of the man, had been kept constantly upon the alert by the circumstances of his situation. ~ Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott Protection is the first necessity of opulence and luxury. ~ The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad His eyes were naturally heavy; he had an air of having wallowed, fully dressed, all day on an unmade bed. ~ The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad "My rank is the highest known in Switzerland: I'm a free citizen." ~ Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw "Soldiering, my dear madam, is the coward's art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong, and keeping out of harm's way when you are weak. That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms." ~ Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." ~ Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. ~ Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift "Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to tell you what's sensible and what's foolish, and want you to stick at home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I feel like it, and be accountable to nobody." ~ My Antonia by Willa Cather There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made. ~ My Antonia by Willa Cather I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. ~ My Antonia by Willa Cather