text:
Deptford Trilogy

The Deptford Trilogy (1970-75), by Robertson Davies, consists of Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972) and World of Wonders (1975). The series revolves around a simple act—a young boy throws a snowball at another, but it misses its intended target—and the effect this act has on a number of characters.

(1970)

 * Not that any of the women spoke; they had done their speaking before church, and their husbands knew the price of peace.
 * "Mrs. Dempster", Section 11

 * "I cannot remember a time when I did not take it as understood that everybody has at least two, if not twenty-two, sides to him."
 * "I Am Born Again", Section 1

 * I knew she had eaten my father, and I was glad I did not have to fight any longer to keep her from eating me. Oh, these good, ignorant, confident women! How one grows to hate them!
 * "I Am Born Again", Section 4

 * Then I was in love with herself after all, said Diana, making one of those feminine leaps in logic that leave men breathless.
 * "I Am Born Again", Section 6

 * I promised that this would be a frank record, so far as I can write one, and God forbid that I should pretend that there is not a generous measure of spite in my nature.
 * "I Am Born Again", Section 7

 * If you don't hurry up and let life know what you want, life will damned soon show you what you'll get.
 * "My Fool-Saint", Section 6

 * A fool-saint is somebody who seems to be full of holiness and loves everybody and does every good act he can, but because he's a fool it all comes to nothing- to worse than nothing, because it is virtue tainted with madness, and you can't tell where it'll end up.
 * "My Fool-Saint", Section 7

 * He let me know that he had been led into his marriage by love, and love alone; though he did not say so it was clear he owed Cupid a grudge.
 * "Gyges and King Candaules", Section 1

 * Despite these afternoon misgivings and self-reproaches I clung to my notion, ill-defined though it was, that a serious study of any important body of human knowledge, or theory, or belief, if undertaken with a critical but not a cruel mind, would in the end yield some secret, some valuable permanent insight, into the nature of life and the true end of man.
 * "Gyges and King Candaules", Section 3

 * These petitioners had no conception of art; to them a picture was a symbol of something else, and very readily the symbol became the reality. They were untouched by modern education, but their government was striving with might and main to procure this inestimable benefit from them; anticlericalism and American bustle would soon free them from belief in miracles and holy likenesses. But where, I ask myself, will mercy and divine compassion come from then? Or are such things necessary to people who are well fed and know the wonders that lie concealed in an atom? I don't regret economic and educational advance; I just wonder how much we shall have to pay for it, and in what coin.
 * "Liesl", Section 2

 * I know flattery when I hear it; but I do not often hear it.
 * "Liesl", Section 3

 * This is the revenge of the unlived life, Ramsay. Suddenly it makes a fool of you.
 * "Liesl", Section 5

 * "You must get to know your personal devil"
 * "Liesl", Section 5

 * When love strikes the successful middle-aged they bring a weight of personality and a resolution to it that makes the romances of the young seem timid and bungling. They are not troubled by doubt; they know what they want and they go after it.
 * "The Soirée of Illusions", Section 2

(1972)

 * I was embarrassed to be such a fool in a situation that I had told myself and other people countless times I would never submit to -- talking to a psychiatrist, ostensibly seeking help, but without any confidence that he could give it. I have never believed these people can do anything for an intelligent man he can't do for himself. I have known many people who leaned on psychiatrists, and every one of them was a leaner by nature, who would have leaned on a priest if he had lived in an age of faith, or leaned on a teacup reader or an astrologer if he had not enough money to afford the higher hokum.
 * "Why I Went to Zurich", Section 1

 * "Ha ha," laughed Dr Tschudi in a manner I came to be well acquainted with in Switzerland; it is the manner which acknowledges politely that a joke has been made, without in any way encouraging further jokiness.
 * "Why I Went to Zurich", Section 1

 * There used to be a widespread idea that women are very sensitive. My experience of them as clients, witnesses, and professional opponents had dispelled any illusions I might have had of that kind. Some women are sensitive, doubtless, but I have met with nothing to persuade me that they are, on the whole, more likely to be sensitive than men.
 * "Why I went to Zurich", Section 3

 * "Psychology plays a great part in my profession. I am rather a well-known criminal lawyer -- or have you checked that, too? I have to know something about the way people function. Without a pretty shrewd psychological sense I couldn't do what I do, which is to worm things out of people they don't want to tell. That's your job, too, isn't it." "No. My job is to listen to people say things they very badly want to tell but are afraid nobody else will understand. You use psychology as an offensive weapon in the interest of justice. I use it as a cure. So keen a lawyer as yourself will appreciate the difference."
 * "Why I Went to Zurich", Section 3

 * "It is not a fact, except insofar as all coincidences are facts."
 * "Why I Went to Zurich", Section 3

 * "Dreams do not foretell the future. They reveal states of mind in which the future may be implicit."
 * "Why I Went to Zurich", Section 3

 * "Did you know, by the way, that somebody has to own a grave? Somebody, that is, other than the occupant. I own my father's grave. A strange thought."
 * "Why I Went to Zurich", Section 5

 * "And because she died during the war, when my father was abroad, the funeral had to be arranged by a family friend, and he just bought one grave. A good one, but single. She lies in the same desirable area as my father, but not near. As in life."
 * "Why I Went to Zurich", Section 5

 * "Denyse had heard somewhere of a coffin being covered with a blanket of roses, and she wanted one as her own special offering. It was Caroline who persuaded her to hold herself down to a decent bunch of white flowers. Or really, persuaded isn't the word.
 * "Why I Went to Zurich", Section 5

 * Simple people seem to think that if a family has money, every member dips what he wants out of some ever-replenished bag that hangs, perhaps, by the front door.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 1

 * My sister Caroline usually had lots of money because she was under no necessity to become a man and had to have money always about her for unexplained reasons connected with protecting her virtue.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 1

 * If I had the power to cast curses, I should rank the curse of being enviable very high.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 1

 * You North American men are especially guilty of casting your mothers in a cramping, minor role.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 4

 * There are lots of Christians who are all pity and charity for the miserable and the outcast, but who think it a spiritual duty to give the rich a good snubbing whenever they can.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 5

 * Carol and Beesty are now generous patrons of music, and I collect pictures. With both of us, as Father Knopwood feared, it has become the only spiritual life we have, and not a very satisfactory one when life is hard.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 5

 * I know what a heavy burden everybody carries of the unconfessed, which sometimes appears to be unspeakable. Very often such stuff is not disgraceful or criminal; it is merely a sense of not having behaved well or having done something one knew to be contrary to someone else's good; of having snatched when one should have waited decently; of having turned a sharp corner when someone else was thereby left in a difficult situation; of having talked of the first-rate when was planning to do the second-rate; of having fallen below whatever standards one had set oneself.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 8

 * What school performance of anything is ever less than a triumph?
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 9

 * To be cynical is not the same as avoiding illusion, for cynicism is just another kind of illusion. All formulas for meeting life -- even many philosophies -- are illusion.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 9

 * Be sure you choose what you believe and know why you believe it, because if you don't choose your beliefs, you may be certain that some belief, and probably not a very creditable one, will choose you.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 11

 * It is a widespread idea that people who are unusually cruel must be insane, though the corollary of that would be that anybody who is unusually compassionate must be insane.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 13

 * There are the There-But-for-the-Grace-of-Godders who seem to think it is only by a narrow squeak that they have kept out of the prisoner's dock themselves; they are bird-brains to whom God's grace and good luck mean the same thing.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 13

 * It is one of the touching aspects of our work here in the College [of Arms] that so many of you New World people, up to the eyebrows in all the delights of republicanism, hanker after a link with what is ancient and rubbed by time to a fine sheen. It's more than snobbery; more than romanticism; it's a desire for an ancestry that somehow postulates a posterity and for an existence in the past that is a covert guarantee of immortality in the future.
 * "David Against the Trolls", Section 13

 * Did you ever think that these three men [ Freud, Adler and Jung] who were so splendid at understanding others had first to understand themselves? It was from their self-knowledge they spoke. They did not go trustingly to some doctor and follow his lead because they were too lazy or too scared to make the inward journey alone. They dared heroically...Was their heroism simply meant to raise a whole new crop of invalids?
 * "My Sorgenfrei Diary"

(1975)

 * The Devil's attributes have been left vague. I think I've found one of them. It is he who puts the prices on things.
 * "A Bottle in the Smoke", Section 6

 * Once a man showed me a great treasure of his family; it was a handkerchief which somebody, on 30 January 1649, had dipped in the blood of the executed English King Charles I. It was a disgusting, rusty rag. But if you and I and Roly here had the money and the right people, we could fake up an execution of King Charles that would make people weep. Which is nearer to the truth? The rag, or our picture?
 * "A Bottle in the Smoke", Section 7

 * He was funny, or ironic, or whatever you want to call it, about the World of Wonders. We all know why people talk in that way; if we are amusing about our trials in the past, it is as if we say, "See what I overcame - now I treat it as a joke - see how strong I have been and ask yourself if you could have overcome what I overcame?"
 * "A Bottle in the Smoke", Section 7

 * During the First World War some of the English troops used to go over the top shouting, "Marmalade!" in humorously chivalrous voices, as if it were a heroic battle-cry. The Germans could never get used to it. They puzzled tirelessly to solve the mystery. Because a German cannot conceive that a man in battle would want to be funny, you see. But I think the English were dissembling the horror of their situation so that they would not notice how close they were to Death. Again, humour was essentially evil. If they had thought of the truth of their situation, they might not have gone over the top. And that might have been a good thing.
 * "A Bottle in the Smoke", Section 7

 * Willard liked best to steal from the local cop, but as cops rarely had much money this was a larcenous foppery which he did not often allow himself.
 * "A Bottle in the Smoke", Section 8

 * Unhappiness of the kind that is recognized and examined and brooded over is a spiritual luxury.
 * "A Bottle in the Smoke", Section 8

 * Like many people who are losing their grip, he mistook it for the coming of a new wisdom in himself.
 * "A Bottle in the Smoke", Section 8

 * Milady said that with the Bible and Shakespeare it was better to be a little cool, rather than too hot; the meaning emerged more powerfully. "Listen to Sir John," she said, "and you'll find that he never pushes a line as far as it will go." That was how I learned about never doing your damnedest; your next-to-damnedest was far better.
 * "Merlin's Laugh", Section 6

 * Most adolescents are destructive, I suppose, but the worst are certainly those who justify what they do with a half-baked understanding of somebody's philosophy.
 * "Merlin's Laugh", Section 7

 * People who think of beds only in terms of sexual exercise or sleep simply do not understand that a bed is the best of all places for a philosophical discussion, an argument, and if necessary a showdown. It was not by chance that so many kings of old administered justice from their beds, and even today there is something splendidly parliamentary about an assembly of concerned persons in a bed.
 * "Le Lit de Justice", Section 1

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Deptford Trilogy


text:
Salterton Trilogy

The Salterton Trilogy (1951-58), by Robertson Davies, consists of Tempest-Tost (1951), Leaven of Malice (1954) and A Mixture of Frailties (1958)

Tempest-Tost

 * St. Clement's was Broad, with a tendency to become Low under stress.
 * Part 1

 * It seems quaint to those whose own personalities are not strongly marked and whose intellects are infrequently replenished.
 * Part 1

 * "Wet", said he. Classics was his subject, and he sometimes affected a classical simplicity in social conversation.
 * Part 1

 * The Forresters, as they told everyone they met, had "neither chick nor child". Their failure to have a chick never provoked surprise, but it was odd that they were childless; they had not sought that condition.
 * Part 1

 * "Children, don't speak so coarsely," said Mr Webster, who had a vague notion that some supervision should be exercised over his daughters' speech, and that a line should be drawn, but never knew quite when to draw it. He had allowed his daughters to use his library without restraint, and nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library.
 * Part 1

 * But Freddy was not in a mood to be satisfied with herself, and as she put on her pyjamas and jumped into bed she wondered what Daddy would say if she suggested that in a year or two she should become a postulant in an Anglican nunnery. Somewhat illogically she broke off this train of reflection to read the large illustrated Rabelais which she had abstracted from the library. She found it very good fun, and made a mental list of several abusive terms to use in her next quarrel with Griselda.
 * Part 1

 * A slovenly action, thrice repeated, has become a habit.
 * Part 1

 * In her latest speech she had scored a double; she had condemned Griselda's legs because they were beautiful, and sneered at poor Pearl Vambrace's because they were not. Mrs Bridgetower had indeed benefited from higher education.
 * Part 1

 * Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the young old before their time.
 * Part 2

 * The thought which was uppermost in his mind, when at last Griselda stopped and turned to him, was that his mother never went to sleep until he had come home and that her displeasure and concern, issuing from her rather as the haze of ectoplasm issues from a spiritualist medium, filled the house whenever he came home late.
 * Part 2

 * His key seemed to make a shattering noise in the lock. And when he entered the hall, which was in darkness, maternal solicitude and pique embraced him like the smell of cooking cabbage.
 * Part 2

 * And because he had been born to this lot, he accepted it without question; as children always do, and as some adults continue to do, he invented reasons why he should be as he was, instead of seeking for means by which he might be delivered from his fate.
 * Part 2

 * She was a short, stout woman, shaped like a cottage loaf. A nubbin, with a twist of whispy hair on it, formed her head; a larger nubbin comprised her bust and upper reaches; the largest nubbin of all was formed by her spreading hips. She must have had legs, but her skirts concealed them. She had little to say, and it is doubtful if her mental processes could be called thought; they consisted of a series of dissolving views, mostly of possible disasters and misfortunes which might overtake her and her family.
 * Part 2

 * The young are often accused of exaggerating their troubles; they do so, very often, in the hope of making some impression upon the inertia and the immovability of the selfish old.
 * Part 3

 * Pass the buck. It's the secret of life. You can't fight every battle and dry every tear. Whenever you're dealing with something that you don't really care about, pass the buck. You've got me to do your music; that's what you wanted, isn't it? Very well then, let Mrs Forrester clean up the mess.
 * Part 4

 * "I am full of holy joy and free booze," said Cobbler. "I feel moved to sing. It is very wrong to resist an impulse to sing; to hold back a natural evacuation of joy is as injurious as to hold back any other natural issue. It makes a man spiritually costive, and plugs him up with hard, caked, thwarted merriment. This, in the course of time, poisons his whole system and is likely to turn him into that most detestable of beings, a Dry Wit. God grant that I may never be a Dry Wit. Let me ever be a Wet Wit! Let me pour forth what mirth I have until I am utterly empty -- a Nit Wit."
 * Part 5

 * Purcell! What a genius! And lucky, too. Nobody has ever thought to blow him up into a God-like Genius, like poor old Bach, or a Misunderstood Genius, like poor old Mozart, or a Wicked and Immoral Genius, like poor old Wagner. Purcell is just a nice, simple Genius, rollicking happily through Eternity. The boobs and the gramophone salesmen and the music hucksters haven't discovered him yet and please God they never will. Kids don't peck and mess at little scraps of Purcell for examinations. Arthritic organists don't torture Purcell in chapels and tin Bethels all over the country on Sundays, while the middle classes are pretending to be holy. Purcell is still left for people who really like music.
 * Part 5

 * "A pretty girl is like a melody," hummed Roger. "Excuse me," said Cobbler, turning toward him, "but I must contradict you. A pretty girl is nothing of the kind. A melody, if it is any good, has a discernible logic; a pretty girl can exist without the frailest vestige of sense."
 * Part 5

 * "Curiosity killed the cat," said Hector, who was a little embarrassed by the turn the conversation had taken; nevertheless, he wanted to show himself a man's man, and something witty seemed called for. "I deny that," said Cobbler; "the cat probably died a happy martyr to research."
 * Part 5

 * "Oho, now I know what you are. You are an advocate of Useful Knowledge." "Certainly." "You say that a man's first job is to earn a living, and that the first task of education is to equip him for that job?" "Of course." "Well, allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. You like the mind to be a neat machine, equipped to work efficiently, if narrowly, and with no extra bits or useless parts. I like the mind to be a dustbin of scraps of brilliant fabric, odd gems, worthless but fascinating curiosities, tinsel, quaint bits of carving, and a reasonable amount of healthy dirt. Shake the machine and it goes out of order; shake the dustbin and it adjusts itself beautifully to its new position." "As a mathematician I can hardly agree with you that disorder is preferable to order." "Mathematician my foot! Do you know anything about linear algebra? How are you on diophantine equations? Could you tell me, in a few words, what Bertrand Russell has added to modern mathematical concepts? You are a mathematician in the way that a teacher of beginners on the piano is a musician!"
 * Part 5

 * She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be stilled save by the frequent and plentiful acquisition of books. This passion is more common, and more powerful, than most people suppose. Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of his drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines -- not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master's call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality. Solly was in a measure a victim of this unscrupulous passion, but Freddy was wholly in the grip of it.
 * Part 6

 * The borborygmy, or rumbling of the stomach, has not received the attention from either art or science which it deserves. It is as characteristic of each individual as the tone of the voice. It can be vehement, plaintive, ejaculatory, conversational, humorous - its variety is boundless. But there are few who are prepared to give it an understanding ear; it is dismissed too often with embarrassment or low wit.
 * Part 6

Leaven of Malice

 * The letter was marked "Urgent -- Print This At Once". Wearily, Ridley laid it aside. This was, perhaps, the voice of the people, and the voice of the people, no editor is ever permitted to forget, is the voice of God. It was a pity, he reflected, that God's utterances needed such a lot of editorial revision.
 * Part 1

 * Oh, Wally, never go to law for simple vengeance; that's not what law is for. Redress, yes; vengeance, no.
 * Part 2

 * Life, as he conceived of it, was a long decline from a glorious past, and if a reader approaches a newspaper in that spirit, he can find much to confirm him in his belief, particularly if he has never examined any short period of the past in day-to-day detail.
 * Part 2

 * "What would you do if you were me?" Cobbler pondered for a moment. "Well," he said, "I suppose if I were you -- that's to say a somewhat inert chap, half content to be the football of fate -- I'd go right on doing whatever I was doing at the moment, and hope the whole thing would blow over."
 * Part 4

 * People who talk a lot about their troubles never commit suicide; talk's the greatest safety-valve there is. I always laugh at that bit in Hamlet where he pretends to despise himself because he unpacks his heart with words, and falls a-scolding like a very drab; that's why the soliloquy about suicide is just Hamlet putting on intellectual airs. A chatterbox like that would never pop himself off with a bare bodkin. No, the suicides are the quiet ones, who can't find the words to fit their misery.
 * Part 4

 * Why do countries have to have literatures? Why does a country like Canada, so late upon the international scene, feel that it must rapidly acquire the trappings of older countries – music of its own, pictures of its own, books of its own – and why does it fuss and stew, and storm the heavens with its outcries when it does not have them?
 * Part 4

 * "Fool!" said the Professor, who had been growing very hot, and was now at the boil. "Do you imply that the sins of the mind are trivial and the sins of the flesh important? What kind of an idiot are you?"
 * Part 5

 * I am increasingly reminded of Oedipus. Do you not recall that in that tragic history, Oedipus met a Sphinx? The Sphinx spoke in riddles -- very terrible riddles, for those who could not guess them died. But Oedipus guessed the riddle, and the chagrin of the Sphinx was so great that it destroyed itself. I am but a poor shadow of Oedipus, I fear, and you, Mr. Yarrow, but a puny kitten of a Sphinx. But you are, like many another Sphinx of our modern world, an under-educated, brassy young pup, who thinks that gall can take the place of the authority of wisdom, and that a professional lingo can disguise his lack of thought. You aspire to be a Sphinx, without first putting yourself to the labour of acquiring a secret.
 * Part 5

 * Most hearts of any quality are broken on two or three occasions in a lifetime. They mend, of course, and are often stronger than before, but something of the essence of life is lost at every break.
 * Part 5

 * "Nitwit!", said Cobbler, "Your first book won't be a success. Don't make marriage conditional on the success of a book, or your mother dying, or anything unlikely of that sort. Put first things first. Get married, and plunge into all the uproar of baby-raising, and loading yourself up with insurance and furniture and all the frowsy appurtenances of domestic life, as soon as you can. You'll survive. Millions do. And deep down under all the trash-heap of duty and respectability and routine you may, if you're among the lucky ones, find a jewel of happiness. I know all about it, and I assure you on my sacred honour that it's worth a try."
 * Part 6

A Mixture of Frailties

 * "Music is like wine, Bridgetower," he had said; "the less people know about it, the sweeter they like it."
 * Part 1, section 1

 * During the first day or two she attempted to get on with War and Peace, but found it depressing, and as time wore on she suffered from that sense of unworthiness which attacks sensitive people who have been rebuffed by a classic.
 * Part 4, section 6

 * Pretence is wonderfully stimulating to the artistic mind, which is why some people lie for fun, rather than from necessity.
 * Part 4, section 12

 * Experience is wine, and art is the brandy we distill from it.
 * Part 6, section 1

 * She was conscious also, and for the first time, of why Domdaniel was regarded as a great man in the world of music. He conducted admirably, of course, marshalling the singers and players, succouring the weak and subduing the too-strong, but all that was to be expected. It was in his capacity to demand more of his musicians than might have been thought prudent, or even possible - to insist that people excel themselves, and to help them to do it - that his greatness appeared. With a certainty that was itself modest (for there was nothing of "spurring on the ranks" about it) he took upon himself the task of making this undistinguished choir give a performance of the Passion which was worthy of a great university. It was not technically of the first order, but the spirit was right. He had been a great man to Monica, for he could open new windows for her, letting splendid light into her life; but now she saw that he could do so for all these clever people, who thought themselves lucky to be allowed to hang on the end of his stick. Without being in the least a showy or self-absorbed conductor he was an imperious, irresistible and masterful one.
 * Part 7, section 6

 * His reply had that clarity, objectivity and reasonableness which is possible only to advisers who have completely missed the point.
 * Part 7, section 6

 * Moral judgements belong to God, and it is part of God's mercy that we do not have to undertake that heavy part of His work, even when the judgement concerns ourselves.
 * Part 7, section 7

 * But the character of the music emphasized the tale as allegory - humorous, poignant, humane allegory - disclosing the metamorphosis of life itself, in which man moves from confident inexperience through the bitterness of experience, toward the rueful wisdom of self-knowledge.
 * Part 9, section 1

title: Salterton Trilogy


text:
Vacation

A vacation (or holiday) is a specific trip or journey, usually for the purpose of recreation or tourism. People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances, or for specific festivals or celebrations.

Quotes

 * What Dad means by "see" of course, is "drive past at 67 miles per hour." Dad feels it is a foolish waste of valuable vacation time to get out of the car and actually go look at an attraction.
 * Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need.

 * Leave for a while thy costly country seat; And, to be great indeed, forget The nauseous pleasures of the great: Make haste and come: Come, and forsake thy cloying store; Thy turret that surveys, from high, The smoke, and wealth, and noise of Rome; And all the busy pageantry That wise men scorn, and fools adore: Come, give thy soul a loose, and taste the pleasures of the poor.
 * John Dryden, Imitation of Horace, 29th Ode

 * Sometimes 'tis grateful to the rich to try A short vicissitude, and fit of poverty: A savoury dish, a homely treat, Where all is plain, where all is neat, Without the stately spacious room, The Persian carpet, or the Tyrian loom, Clear up the cloudy foreheads of the great.
 * John Dryden, Imitation of Horace, 29th Ode

 * Vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer.
 * Cowardly Lion (Wizard of Oz) (1939)

 * The family is always the family but during vacations it is an extended family and that is exhausting.
 * Gertrude Stein, Paris, France, 1940 (New York: Liveright, 1970, p. 107).

 * Vacation All I ever wanted Vacation Had to get away Vacation Meant to be spent alone.
 * The Go-Go's, Vacation, from Vacation (1982).

title: Vacation


text:
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (French: Charles Quint; Spanish: Carlos I, Dutch: Karel V, German: Karl V.) (February 24 1500 – September 21 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Castile and Aragon) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy from 1506 to 1555. As he was head of the rising House of Habsburg during the first half of the 16th century, his dominions in Europe included the Holy Roman Empire, extending from Germany to northern Italy with direct rule over the Austrian hereditary lands and the Burgundian Low Countries, and the Kingdom of Spain with its southern Italian possessions of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Furthermore, he oversaw both the continuation of the long-lasting Spanish colonization of the Americas and the short-lived German colonization of the Americas. The personal union of the European and American territories of Charles V was the first collection of realms labelled "the empire on which the Sun never sets".

Quotes

 * My life has been one long journey.
 * As quoted at his last public speech, in reference to the peripatetic nature of his reign.
 * You know that my ancestors were the most Christian emperors of the great nation of Germany, the Catholic kings of Spain, the archdukes of Austria, and the dukes of Burgundy, who all were, until death, faithful sons of the Roman Church.… I am therefore resolved to maintain everything which these my forebears have established to the present…and to settle this matter I will use all my dominions and possessions, my friends, my body, my blood, my life, and my soul. It would be a disgrace for you and me, the illustrious and renowned nation of Germany, privileged and pre-eminent as protector and defender of the Catholic faith, if heresy, or even just the suspicion of heresy, and the degradation of the Christian religion were to return to the hearts of men in our time to our perpetual dishonour.
 * Diet of Worms (1521)
 * Detlef Ploese and Guenther Vogler, eds., Buch der Reformation. Eine Auswahl zeitgenössischer Zeugnisse (Berlin: Union Verlag, 1989), pp. 245-53

 * I have a glove into which I can put your whole city of Paris.
 * Allegedly told to Francis I of France. The glove, gant in French, is a reference to the city of Ghent (Gandes in French), where Charles was born.

 * In view of Our special love for and inclination to the German Nation and the Holy Roman Empire…as Roman emperor and supreme steward of Christendom, it pertains to Our Imperial office to confess Our obligation to guard, protect, and maintain the holy Christian faith as it has been preserved until now.
 * Diet of Augsburg (1530)
 * Ruth Kastner, ed., Quellen zur Reformation 1517-1555 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1994), pp. 501-20

 * "Francis and I are in perfect accord. He wants Milan and so do I."
 * As quoted in Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 5: The Renaissance (1953)

 * "Leave him alone. He has already met his judge. I wage war on the living, not the dead."
 * In response to the Duke of Alva who proposed to desecrate the tomb of Martin Luther, burn his body, and scatter his ashes to the wind.
 * Michael Grzonka, Luther and His Times (2016)

 * "Fortune hath somewhat the nature of a woman; if she be too much wooed, she is the farther off."
 * As quoted in Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book II
 * "Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales."
 * Translation: As many languages as you know, so many separate individuals you are worth. (Robertson)
 * Translation: As many languages as a man knows so many times he is a man. (Emerson)
 * John G. Robertson, Robertson's Words for a Modern Age: A Cross Reference of Latin and Greek Combining Elements (1991): "Attributed to Charles V"; Ralph H. Orth, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Vol. 6: 1824–1838: "Charles V ap. Brantam"

Emperor: A New Life of Charles V

 * Geoffrey Parker, Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (2019)

 * “It pleased the emperor, my lord and grandfather, to emancipate me and free me from his ward and guardianship, placing in our hands the governance of our lands and lordships in the Netherlands… our affairs shall in future be transacted in our name… the titles that we intend to use from now on… by the grace of God, prince of Spain, of Sicily and Naples, of Jerusalem and others, archduke of Austria, duke of Burgundy, Lorraine, Brabant, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Limburg, Luxembourg and Gelderland… count of Flanders, Habsburg, Tyrol, Artois, Burgundy and Hainaut, landgrave of Alsace, prince of Swabia, margrave of Burgau, Holland, Seeland, Ferrette, Kyburg, Namur and Zutphen, lord of Frisia, Sclavonia, Pordenone, Salins and Mechelen.”
 * (8th January 1515), Ch. 3: The Difficult Inheritance, 1515-17

 * “Because we cannot by ourselves give sufficient thanks to God, our creator, for the grace, honour, health and success that He has granted us thus far, nor amass sufficient merit to secure the continuation of His grace in the future… to beseech God to continue to raise us in virtue and good customs, to govern our dominions and subjects in peace, union and concord, and to guide our affairs to His honour, our wellbeing, and the prosperity, utility and tranquility of our said dominions and subjects.”
 * (January 1515), Ch. 3. The Difficult Inheritance, 1515-17

 * “Ever since our emancipation and entry into the lordship and governance of our Netherlands provinces, we have constantly tried and strongly desired and wanted to create good order and sound policies in all our affairs and end the disorder that has existed in the past because of the wars and divisions that prevailed, as well as for other reasons, and even in the organisation of our own household on which the wellbeing, honour and tranquility of ourselves and of our ministers, dominions and subjects largely depends.”
 * (late 1515), Ch. 3. The Difficult Inheritance, 1515-17

 * (in regard to a counter attack against the Turks) “…because that is what I have wanted to do since I was a child and also to fulfill the responsibilities of my imperial title as chief protector and defender of our Christian religion. Therefore, despite the vast costs and distractions that I face at present on account of the war against the French, I have resolved to assemble a fleet as soon as I can to relieve Rhodes… ready to spare nothing to preserve, defend and deliver Rhodes from these tyrannical infidel enemies, devoting all our kingdom and dominions and our person if necessary.”
 * (1522, before Rhodes was captured by the Ottomans), Ch. 8. Champion of the Western World, 1528-31

 * “We are more inclined to marry [your] sister the infanta, Isabella, than anyone else because there is no daughter of a king as ready as her.”
 * (January 1522 to King John of Portugal), Portrait of the Emperor as a Renaissance Prince

 * The Nuncio Baldesari Castilione: “[His majesty] should make up his mind and fast, because delay is very dangerous.”
 * Emperor Charles: “[Our policy] has always been to deal first with matters which are easiest to resolve and leave the most difficult ones until last.”
 * (1526), Portrait of the Emperor as a Renaissance Prince

 * “I am wholly decided and resolved to go in person to help my brother because his need is so great and the perils so extreme that it does not merely threaten him but places all Christendom at risk. I cannot and must not abandon him because of the office I hold and because of the obligations of fraternal friendship and also because he is such a good brother to me.”
 * (Charles’ letter to his aunt Margaret, 23rd September 1529), Ch. 8. Champion of the Western World, 1528-31

 * “Without the prior pacification of Italy, it could happen that as soon as I leave to succor you, Venice, Florence, Ferrara and Francesco Sforza will ally together, pull all their resources and invite the French to support them… Since I will need to take with me to Germany the army besieging Florence, we need a swift decision by His Holiness in this matter.”
 * (Charles’ letter to his brother Ferdinand, 23rd September 1529), Ch. 8. Champion of the Western World, 1528-31

 * “Since our Lord, who gave Fernando to us, wished to have him back, we must bend to His will and thank Him and beg Him to protect what is left. With great affection, my lady, I beg you to do this and to forget and leave behind all pain and grief.”
 * (1530, Charles to his wife), Portrait of the Emperor as a Renaissance Prince

 * “These heretics have been so obstinate that no policy has worked or sufficed to get them to recognise their errors… I can see that if there were a way of forcing them we could justly move against them, but that is not the case now, nor do I currently have the means, because I am tired, alone and without help and there are so many of them that great force would be needed to overcome them. The true remedy is to convene a general council.”
 * (Charles to Louiser, 20th October 1530), Ch. 8. Champion of the Western World, 1528-31

 * “…Begging Your Holiness as earnestly as I can that you convene a general council with the urgency that the situation demands and that for optimal effect Your Holiness should write to other princes and potentates explaining why. Namely the need to create a united front against the expected Turkish attack and to prevent the heresies that have recently appeared from spreading further.”
 * (Charles’ letter to Pope Clement VII, 20th October 1530), Ch. 8. Champion of the Western World, 1528-31

 * “I want to be trusted, and will not bargain with my subjects.”
 * (Charles to the ministers of Holland, 1531), Ch. 8. Champion of the Western World, 1528-31

 * “I found great enmities, personal passions, leagues and alliances among [my] officials, constantly turning everyone against the rest. Therefore, to see and ascertain the truth, I followed up the accusations against my fiscal officers made by their adversaries, and I examined their accounts from 1520 to 1530, that is for 10 years, to see if they had robbed me as some claimed. But, although some matters were not as satisfactory as they should have been, I found no fault… If there is a fault here, the principal cause is that everyone desires so many privileges to limit my sovereignty so that we would almost become colleagues and I would no longer be in charge. ”
 * (Charles confided to Ferdinand, in Burgundian French, about the disputes of taxes in Brussels, 1531), Ch. 8. Champion of the Western World, 1528-31

 * “I was writing to my wife when your letter arrived, and now I want to look at her portrait myself, seeing the great beauty it contains. I am such a devoted husband that other beautiful women now do nothing for me.”
 * (1532, Charles’ letter to his sister Marie), Portrait of the Emperor as a Renaissance Prince

 * “It has brought me the greatest sorrow you can imagine, because he was the most handsome little boy for his age that you could find. I feel his death even more than the loss of my own son [Fernando] because he was older and I knew him better and treated him as my own son. Nevertheless we must accept the will of God. May God forgive me, but I wish He had taken Christian instead of his son.”
 * (Charles on the death of his nephew Hans of Denmark, August, 1532), Portrait of the Emperor as a Renaissance Prince

Disputed

 * I speak in Latin to God, Italian to Women, French to Men, and German to my Horse.
 * Also attributed to other historical figures. Several variants exist and have been quoted for centuries. The earliest known citation, itself a secondary source dating from 40 years after Charles's death, gives two versions that both differ from the modern one. Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente's 1601 De Locutione gives:Unde solebat, ut audio, Carolus V Imperator dicere, Germanorum linguam esse militarem: Hispanorum amatoriam: Italorum oratoriam: Gallorum nobilem. ("Whence Emperor Charles V used to say, as I hear, that the language of the Germans was military; that of the Spaniards pertained to love; that of the Italians to prayer; that of the French was noble.")Alius vero, qui Germanus erat, retulit, eundem Carolum Quintum dicere aliquando solitum esse; Si loqui cum Deo oporteret, se Hispanice locuturum, quod lingua Hispanorum gravitatem maiestatemque prae se ferat; si cum amicis, Italice, quod Italorum dialectus familiaris sit; si cui blandiendum esset, Gallice, quod illorum lingua nihil blandius; si cui minandum aut asperius loquendum, Germanice, quod tota eorum lingua minax, aspera sit ac vehemens. ("Indeed another, who was German, related that the same Charles V sometimes used to say: if it was necessary to talk with God, that he would talk in Spanish, for the language of the Spaniards suggests itself for graveness and majesty; if with friends, in Italian, for the dialect of the Italians was one of familiarity; if to caress someone, in French, for no language is tenderer than theirs; if to threaten someone or to speak harshly to them, in German, for their entire language is threatening, rough and vehement.")
 * I will not blush like my predecessor Sigismund.
 * This was supposedly said by Charles when Martin Luther appeared at the Diet of Worms (16–18 April 1521) under an imperial safe-conduct; members of the pro-papal party (sometimes Johann Maier von Eck (Eccius) is specified) are supposed to have urged the emperor to seize Luther in despite of the safe-conduct, whereupon Charles alluded to the story that when Jan Huss had appeared before the Emperor Sigismund under a similar safe-conduct and had been arrested anyway, Huss reproached Sigismund, who visibly reddened at his own lack of faith. The quotation appears in various similar forms, e.g., "I shall not blush as Sigismund did at Constance." The saying is attributed to Charles by the German scholars, poets, and brothers Wilhelm and Gabriel Seyfried in their Dissertatio Historica de Johanne Hus (Jena, 1711), p. 99, without a specific source, in the Latin form Nolo cum Sigismondo, Antecessore meo erubescere.

title: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor


text:
User:Akuchling

Andrew M. Kuchling: my home page is at http://www.amk.ca.

I've maintained various collections of quotations at http://www.amk.ca/quotations/ in an XML format of my own. It seems more useful for the quotations to be in Wikiquote where other people can improve them, so I'm slowly working on converting them to Wiki format and making them meet Wiki standards.

Already moved to Wikiquote: Robertson Davies, Peter Greenaway.

In progress: Cryptography (the sourcing still needs to be tightened up).

Still to do: Neil Gaiman, H.P. Lovecraft, Tom Baker, William Shakespeare, comic books, Python programming language.

My commonplace book is the only one I'm not planning to move, since it's a quirky personal collection.

title: User:Akuchling


text:
Cornish Trilogy

Quotations from The Cornish Trilogy, a series of three novels by Robertson Davies.

The Rebel Angels

 * Too much cleanliness is an enemy to creation, to speculative thought.
 * Second Paradise I, section 3.

 * "Will you respect me enough not to snoop through my papers?" "Perhaps not as much as that. I like to know what's going on."
 * Second Paradise I, section 3.

 * Autumn, to me the most congenial of seasons: the University, to me the most congenial of lives.
 * The New Aubrey I, section 1.

 * As I walked down the avenue of maples that leads toward the University Bookstore I was as happy as I suppose it is in my nature to be; my nature tends toward happiness, or toward enthusiastic industry, which for me is the same thing.
 * The New Aubrey I, section 1.

 * McVarish always reminds me of the fairy-tale about the girl out of whose mouth a toad leapt whenever she spoke. He could say more nasty things in ordinary conversation than anybody I have ever known, and he could make poor innocents like Ellerman accept them as wit.
 * The New Aubrey I, section 1.

 * However much science and educational theory and advanced thinking you pump into a college or a university, it always retains a strong hint of its medieval origins, and the fact that Spook was a New World college in a New World university made surprisingly little difference.
 * The New Aubrey I, section 2.

 * "I'm getting on with the work that will eventually make me a Doctor of Philosophy." "Ah, that blessed degree that stamps us for life as creatures of guaranteed intellectual worth."
 * Second Paradise II, section 2.

 * What really shapes and conditions and makes us is somebody only a few of us ever have the courage to face: and that is the child you once were, long before formal education ever got its claws into you — that impatient, all-demanding child who wants love and power and can't get enough of either and who goes on raging and weeping in your spirit till at last your eyes are closed and all the fools say, "Doesn't he look peaceful?" It is those pent-up, craving children who make all the wars and all the horrors and all the art and all the beauty and discovery in life, because they are trying to achieve what lay beyond their grasp before they were five years old.
 * Second Paradise II, section 2.

 * McVarish lectured dully; his stuff was good but he was too much the scholar to make it interesting, lest somebody should accuse him of "popularization".
 * Second Paradise II, section 3.

 * Funny how languages break down and turn into something else. Latin was rubbed away until it degenerated into dreadful lingos like French and Spanish and Italian, and lo! people found out that quite new things could be said in these degenerate tongues — things nobody had ever thought of in Latin. English is breaking down now in the same way — becoming a world language that every Tom, Dick and Harry must learn, and speak in a way that would give Doctor Johnson the jim-jams.
 * Second Paradise II, section 3.

 * I knew I was going to like Prof. the Rev. Darcourt. He seemed to think that learning could be amusing, and that heavy people needed stirring up. Like Rabelais, of whom even educated people like Parlabane had such a stupid opinion. Rabelais was gloriously learned because learning amused him, and so far as I am concerned that is learning's best justification. Not the only one, but the best. It is not that I wanted to know a great deal, in order to acquire what is now called expertise, and which enables one to become an expert-tease to people who don't know as much as you do about the tiny corner you have made your own...In a modern university if you ask for knowledge they will provide it in almost any form — though if you ask for out-of-fashion things they may say, like the people in shops, "Sorry, there's no call for it."
 * Second Paradise II, section 3.

 * I had known him for years in a casual way, but I had never seen very deeply into him. He seemed to me to have more conscience than is good for any man. A powerful conscience and no sense of humour — a dangerous combination.
 * The New Aubrey II, section 1.

 * [Maria speaking to Parlabane] "Very likely. You can't bounce me with abuse, Parlabane … by bounce I mean men always want to disconcert women and put them at a disadvantage; bouncing is genial, patronizing bullying and I won't put up with it."
 * Second Paradise III, section 1.

 * Parlabane had done something that had a little unhinged me; he had awakened the Maenad in me, that spirit which any woman of any character keeps well suppressed, but shakes men badly when it is revealed. The Maenads, who tore Pentheus to bloody scraps and ate him, are not dead, just sleeping.
 * Second Paradise III, section 2.

 * Energy and curiosity are the lifeblood of universities; the desire to find out, to uncover, to dig deeper, to puzzle out obscurities, is the spirit of the university, and it is a channelling of that unresting curiosity that holds mankind together.
 * ''The New Aubrey III', section 2.

 * Because real teaching demands energy as well. To instruct calls for energy, and to remain almost silent, but watchful and helpful, while students instruct themselves, calls for even greater energy. To see someone fall … when a word from you would keep him on his feet but ignorant of an important danger, is one of the tasks of the teacher that calls for special energy, because holding in is more demanding than crying out.
 * The New Aubrey III, section 2.

 * But like everybody else, as Hollier says, I live in a muddle of eras, and some of my ideas belong to today, and some to an ancient past, and some to periods of time that seem more relevant to my parents than to me. If I could sort them and control them I might know better where I stand, but when I most want to be contemporary the Past keeps pushing in, and when I long for the Past … the Present cannot be pushed away.
 * Second Paradise IV, section 1.

 * Oh, I knew what was wrong with me, right enough; I wanted to be an intellectual, to escape from everything Mamusia and the generations of Kalderash behind her meant, and I knew I could do it only by the uttermost violence to myself.
 * Second Paradise IV, section 2.

 * She called it the Bear Chant; it was the music Gypsy bear-leaders played or sang to their animals, but I think it was something older than that; to those gypsies so long ago the bear was not only a valuable possession and money-spinner, but a companion and perhaps an object of reverence. Is it unbelievable? Notice how some people talk to their dogs and cats nowadays; the talk is usually the sentimentality they think appropriate to a not very dangerous animal. But how would one talk to a bear which could kill? How would one ask it for friendship? How would one invite its wisdom, which is so unlike the wisdom of a man, but not impenetrable by a man? This was what the Bear Chant seemed to be — music that moved slowly, with long interrogative pauses, and unusual demands on that low, guttural voice of the fiddle, which is so rarely heard in the kind of music I understand and enjoy.
 * Second Paradise IV, section 2.

 * The house stank; a stench all its own pervaded every corner. It was a threnody in the key of Cat minor, with a ground-bass of Old Dog, and modulations of old people, waning lives, and relinquished hopes.
 * Second Paradise IV, section 2.

 * A strange child, perhaps, but I wouldn't give a pinch of dust for a child who was not strange. Is not every child strange, by adult accounting, if we could only learn to know it? If it has no strangeness, what is the use of it? To grow up into another humanoid turnip?
 * Second Paradise IV, section 5.

 * The Gypsies are not a numerous people, and so the statistics concerning their extermination are unimpressive, if you are impressed chiefly by numbers: there were just a few less than half a million who died thus, but when one human creature dies a whole world of hope and memory and feeling dies with him. To be robbed of the dignity of a natural death is a terrible deprivation.
 * Second Paradise IV, section 5.

 * Half a million Gypsies dead, at the command of this gadjo world; who weeps for them? I do, sometimes. I do.
 * Second Paradise IV, section 5.

 * Secrets are the blood of life. Every big thing is a secret, even when you know it, because you never know all of it. If you can know everything about anything, it is not worth knowing.
 * Second Paradise IV, section 6.

 * She unwrapped the figure, which was bandaged at least six layers deep, and there we saw a violin. "The great lady is undressed for her sleep," said Mamusia, and indeed the violin had no bridge, no strings, no pegs, and looked very much like someone in déshabillé. "You see that the sleep is coming on her; the varnish is already a little dulled, but she is breathing, she is sinking into her trance. In six months she will be wakened by me, her cunning servant, and I shall dress her again and she will go back to the world with her voice in perfect order."
 * Second Paradise IV, section 6.

 * Civilization rests on two things...the discovery that fermentation produces alcohol, and voluntary ability to inhibit defecation. And I put it to you, where would this splendidly civilized occasion be without both?
 * The New Aubrey IV, section 2.

 * A world without corruption would be a strange world indeed — and a damned bad world for lawyers, let me say.
 * The New Aubrey IV, section 2.

 * Late November can be a romantic time of year in Canada; the bare trees, the frosty air and whirling winds, the eerie light which sometimes persists for the whole of the day and then sinks, shortly after four, into steely darkness, dispose me to Gothic thoughts.
 * Second Paradise V, section 1.

 * I have thought a good deal about trees; I like them. They speak eloquently of the balanced dubiety which I told you was the sceptical attitude. No splendid crown without the strong root that works in the dark, drawing its nourishment among the rocks, the soil, hidden waters, and all the little, burrowing things. A man is like that; his splendours and his fruits are to be seen, to win him love and admiration. But what about the root? Have you ever seen a bulldozer clearing land? It advances upon a great tree and shoves and pushes inexorably until the tree is down and thrust out of the way, and all of that effort is accompanied by a screaming and wrenching sounds from the tree as the great roots are torn from the ground. It is a particularly distressing kind of death. And when the tree is upturned, the root proves to be as big as the crown. What is the root of man? All sorts of things that nourish his visible part, but the deepest root of all, the tap-root, is that child he once was, of which I spoke to you when I was amusing you with the story of my life.  That is the root which goes deepest because it is reaching downward towards the ancestors.
 * Second Paradise V, section 2.

 * "No, it is in the story. I saw it in New York. The kings say, We bring you Gold, Frank Innocence, and Mirth." "Sancta simplicitas," said Darcourt. "If only there were more Mirth in the message He has left to us. We miss it sadly, in the world we have made."
 * Second Paradise V, section 4.

 * So what was I to do? To go backward was base: to go forward an adventure into splendour and terror. But it was forward I must go.
 * The New Aubrey V, section 1.

 * Poor woman, I suppose she led a dog's life, and it made her disagreeable, which she mistook for being strong.
 * The New Aubrey V, section 6.

 * The paradox of money is that when you have lots of it you can manage life quite cheaply. Nothing so economical as being rich.
 * Second Paradise VI, section 4.

 * I was offered a lot of money for my story, "John Parlabane as I Knew Him", and the services of a ghost to write it up from my verbal confession. (It was assumed that, as a student, I would not be capable of coherent expression.)
 * Second Paradise VI, section 5.

 * I think he expected me to agree enthusiastically, but I didn't. Nor did I contradict him; I have had too much experience of life to attempt to tell a really rich person anything.
 * The New Aubrey VI, section 1.

 * "I am not convinced such a small library will know how to deal with it," said Jubilei. "Can you guarantee that it will be preserved, page by page, between sheets of acid-free paper?" I thought of Parlabane's squalid mess of typescript, and smiled a private smile.
 * The New Aubrey VI, section 3.

 * "I was saying precisely that to my wife this morning at breakfast." "And what did she say?" "I think she said Yes dear, and went on making a list for her shopping. But that's beside the point…"
 * The New Aubrey VI, section 3.

 * "That is what lends splendour to a university," said the Warden. "Not these dreadful interruptions of the natural order." "You lean always toward the light, Warden; perhaps both are necessary, for completeness."
 * The New Aubrey VI, section 3.

The Lyre of Orpheus

 * Like a real academic, she was wary of people outside the academic world — 'laymen' they called them — who seemed to know a lot. Knowledge was for professionals of knowledge.
 * Part 1, section 3.

 * Important rule of professorcraft: never show resentment at a student insult — wait and get them later.
 * Part 1, section 4.

 * They did not murmur the [ Canadian ] national prayer: "O God, grant me mediocrity and comfort; protect me from the radiance of Thy light."
 * Part 3, section 3.

 * A Philistine is someone who is content to live in a wholly unexplored world.
 * Part 3, section 4.

 * It is a firm critical principle that nobody living is quite as good as somebody dead.
 * Part 4, section 3.

 * Like a true university woman she set out on a criticism of the words which was rooted in what she had been taught; she had a critical system, unfailing in its power to reduce poetry to technicalities and to slide easily over its content. It was a system which, properly applied, could put Homer in his place and turn the Sonnets of Shakespeare into critic-fodder. Without intending to be so, it was a system which, once mastered, set the possessor free forever, should that be his wish, from anything a poet, however noble in spirit, might have felt and imparted to the world.
 * Part 6, section 3.

 * There are no great performances without great audiences, and this is the barrier that film and television, by their utmost efforts, cannot cross, for there can be no interaction between what is done, and those to whom it is done. Great theatre, great music-drama, is created again and again on both sides of the footlights.
 * Part 7, section 10.

 * Did you ever hear such enthusiasm? In Canada, I mean, the Home of Modified Rapture.
 * Part 7, section 10.

What's Bred in the Bone

 * What we call luck is the inner man externalized
 * Part 1.

 * A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.
 * Part 2.

 * She knew enough about the McRorys to hang them, she told herself, but she held her tongue. Judge not that ye be not judged. Of course, you can't be a Calvinist without judging, but as a Calvinist you know what God's ordinances are, so it isn't really judging. It's just knowing right from wrong.
 * Part 2.

 * Whoever lives in the finest house in a small Canadian town dwells in a House of Atreus, about which a part of the community harbours the darkest mythical suspicions...In lesser houses there may be fighting, covert abortions, children "touched up" with a hot flat-iron to make them obedient, every imaginable aspect of parsimony, incest, and simple, persistent cruelty, but these are nothing to whatever seems amiss at the Big House.
 * Part 2.

 * Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
 * Part 4.

 * It was a man's mind, the size of a house.
 * Part 4.

 * Catholicism has begotten much great art; Protestantism none at all – not a single painting. But Catholicism has fostered art in the very teeth of Christianity. The Kingdom of Christ, if it ever comes, will contain no art; Christ never showed the least concern with it. His church has inspired much but not because of anything the Master said. Who then was the inspirer? The much-maligned Devil, one supposes. It is he who understands and ministers to man's carnal and intellectual self, and art is carnal and intellectual.
 * Part 5.

 * It was a philosophy deformed by that disease so fatal to philosophers – personal experience.
 * Part 5.

 * The art of the quoter is to know when to stop.
 * Part 6.

 * In the minds of politicians, perhaps more than anywhere, the notion of a million dollars has this accordion-like ability to expand or contract; if they are disposing of it, the million is a pleasing sum, reflecting warmly upon themselves; if somebody else wants it, it becomes a figure of inordinate size, not to be compassed by the rational mind.
 * Part 6.

title: Cornish Trilogy


text:
Talk:George Washington

This page is for discussing improvements to the George Washington article.

Bold
Why all the bold/emphasized text. Is there something about those quotes that are more important than the rest? I vote to remove bold. Liblamb 06:06, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Agreed, it makes no sense --Awiseman 15:40, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I've not had time to be very active here most of this month, but just happened to notice this as I was preparing to do a few things. As one of the people who has spent the most time working on this project (and in developing this page among many others), I have always objected to the idea that everything should be presented at the same level of emphasis, and I have always believed it makes immense sense in a collection of quotations for those that are most famous, and those that users tend to find the most notable to be emphasized by bolding. I believe it especially useful on longer pages where many famous and important statements would otherwise be much harder to find, and the practice has been used on many pages since the earliest days of Wikiquote. I have discussed it more fully at a few points in the past, and now when the subject occasionally comes up, I usually just provide a brief comment and links to some past discussions. ~ Kalki 16:23, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Is Washington Racist?
Are there any racist quotes from George Washington? I know he owned slaves although he said that all men were created equal. → Marcher Lord 23:29 26 November, 2006 (UTC)

Cannabis grower
In the German article an entry of his diary is cited: “Habe begonnen, die männlichen von den weiblichen Hanfpflanzen zu trennen … fast schon zu spät.” (7th August 1765) I would translate it to “Began to seperate the male from the female hemp plants … almost too late.” But since Washington presumely wrote his diary in English, we should take his wording. --88.68.234.87 08:45, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Actually, we shouldn't even consider this quote unless we can find a published source in any language. Just saying "Tagebucheintrag [Diary entry], 7 August 1765" in de:George Washington does not provide a physical work that we readers and editors can use to verify a quote. This is a problem with many quotes, including quite a few in this current article. (Even citing speeches isn't sufficient unless we have a publication that provides a transcription of the speech.) Any effort to find and cite specific reliable publications for these and other articles' quotes would be greatly appreciated. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:31, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

 * I am aware of published citations of such entries in Washington's diary, and frankly am slightly surprised they haven't as yet appeared here. The common interpretation made is that he stated his separation of the plants was "almost too late" because he was aware of psychoactive or medicinal properties of his plants, to be enhanced by such separation; but there have been assertions that this could have simply been in regard to concerns for development of the hemp fiber itself. I might search for sources on this within the next week or so, but I remain extremely busy with other things. ~ Kalki 14:57, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

 * It would be great if you find reliable sources. But I should clarify that I don't think we have to take up a position if Washington was a cannabis drug producer or if he made other use of it. This diary entry attests he was a cannabis grower—of whatever kind. --88.68.246.87 19:37, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

George Washington's Diary scanned and put online here http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mgw1&fileName=mgw1b/gwpage651.db&recNum=22 Look at day 7 (August 7, 1765), it clearly reads "began to separate the male form the female .. bit to late"

The hemp quote from George Washington shows that he wanted to grow marijuana, since hemp does not need to be separated, therefore he does not need to say it is to late!

 * Cannabis Sativa Linnaeus does have the males separated if the sole purpose is fiber production, the pollinated plants will produce less fiber just as with marijuana production it will decrease yields because in both it start putting the energy into seed production. The male plants will also consume the resources required by the females. A second mid season planting can be done after the the males are culled in order to facilitate production of seed for the next season's crop. these males can be used to pollinate both the mature plants which will still produce plenty of fiber as well as a seed specific crop used for wildlife feed as well as oils and other products for human consumption. in the 1700s up through the early part of the 20th century these crops were single purpose crops, the general public wasn't interested in producing wildlife feeds, hemp milk and granola bars, they grew either to produce seed or fibers. Today's growers are trying to maximize values on the crops by producing cellulose, fibers and seed in the same crops. With today's engineering we produce feminized seed so that culling males is not needed and the cultivation process is as was outlined above, a late season second cropping for pollen production, this allows for the multi use crops to be produced with a lower impact and fewer production costs

Unsourced
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable and precise source for any quote from this list please move it to George Washington.

 * As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality. I'm not sure how to address this issue, or if I'm doing this right, but this quote is from "Letter from George Washington to the Roman Catholics in the United States," May 15th 1790.--173.61.3.79 20:44, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I concur with the above attribution, and would offer this page http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-05-02-0193 as substantial support for same ProudPrimate (talk) 01:59, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

 * As to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it.

 * Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket-book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.

 * Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.
 * Variant: Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.
 * Letter, dated August 19th, 1789 "To the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal church in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, in general Convention assembled." The quote is as follows: "...human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected..." The larger quote is as follows: "and the consideration, that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected, will always continue to prompt me to promote the progress of the former by inculcating the practice of the latter."Ebt66 (talk) 16:21, 24 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Reference: http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/mgw2/038/0580042.jpgEbt66 (talk) 16:20, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

 * How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.

 * I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.

 * I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman's cares.

 * I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.

(http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Quotations_on_Education)
 * If this nation expects to be ignorant and free it expects what never was and what will never be.
 * This is a quote from Thomas Jefferson: 1816 January 6. (to Charles Yancey) "If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be."

 * In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude.

 * It may be laid down as a primary position and is the basis of our system that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government owes not only a portion of his property but even of his personal services to the defense of it.

 * It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.

 * Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
 * Rule from Washington's copy-book, as a schoolboy.

 * Lenience will operate with greater force, in some instances than rigor. It is therefore my first wish to have all of my conduct distinguished by it.

 * Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.

96.247.212.201 18:22, 21 February 2016 (UTC) Letter to Bushrod Washington dated January 15, 1783
 * Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse.

 * My manner of living is plain and I do not mean to be put out of it. A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready.

 * My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.
 * Variant: I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education which I received from my mother.

 * My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty... it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.

 * Nothing is more harmful to the service, than the neglect of discipline for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another.

 * Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it.

 * Our country's honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.

 * The liberality of sentiment toward each other, which marks every political and religious denomination of men in this country, stands unparalleled in the history of nations.

 * The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

 * The tumultuous populace of large cities are ever to be dreaded. Their indiscriminate violence prostrates for the time all public authority, and its consequences are sometimes extensive and terrible.

 * To err is natural; to rectify error is glory.

 * We ought not to look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear-bought experience.
 * Variant: We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

 * We ought to be persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained.
 * Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.

Removed from article on 2011·01·10 :
 * If I were to put a curse on my worst enemy, it would to be to wish him in my posistion now. I just do not know what to do. It seems impossible to continue my command in this situation, but if I withdraw, all will be lost.
 * this had been added to the article as "After the fall of Fort Washington, 1776 " — part of this statement, which I bolded, is attributed to him sometime after the Battle of Brooklyn Heights in George Washington : An American Life (2007) by Laurie Calkhoven, but I located no earlier sources even for that. There might be some slight variations in older publications, but I am not currently inclined to hunt for them. ~ Kalki (talk · contributions) 08:44, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

Forged Quote?
There has been a new Washington quote making the rounds in the last day or so. To the best of my knowledge, the quote seems to be a forgery and the origin seems to be this Op-Ed in the New York Times.

"It must be laid down as a primary position and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal service to the defense of it."

A Google search brought up 7 results. After clicking to show the omitted results, it came up with around 450 pages, almost of all of them within the last day or 2. Can anybody find a source for this quote or is it a forgery as it appears? 206.251.14.19 19:18, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

The quote in question is a well documented one, though even if it were not, a misattribution, rather than a "forged" quote would be the proper term.

 * It may be laid down, as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency.
 * "Sentiments on a Peace Establishment" in a letter to Alexander Hamilton (2 May 1783); published in The Writings of George Washington (1938), edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, Vol. 26, p. 289

I will be adding it to the page, and add sourcing on a page where it already appears. ~ Kalki (talk · contributions) 19:41, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

The quote "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence—it is force!" may be legitimate
This page currently claims that this quote is disputed apparently because the earliest discovered source for this quote was W. M. in 1902 (Christian Science Journal and "no earlier or original source for this statement is cited." I performed a search on google books for this quote and found "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence — it is force" attributed to Washington in "National Party Platforms" by Donald Bruce Johnson, University of Illinois Press, 1840.  Bad thing is that the book is not available in full text even though it should by out of copyright.  All I can get out of google books right now is this portion of the text which includes the quote under dispute: "Today what George Washington, the first President of the United States, said is more true than ever before: 'Government is not reason; it is not eloquence — it is force.' With imperialism the Government has grown into a mammoth monster of ..." Does anyone know how this can be investigated further?? Gaytan (talk) 20:36, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Sometimes Google Books makes mistakes in determining the publication dates of books. In this case, the full title of the book to which you refer is: National Party Platforms, 1840-1956, and it was published not in 1840, but on January 1, 1956. BD2412 T 15:39, 6 December 2013 (UTC)
 * As an addendum, Eugene Volokh writes here about his own search for the quote, which included reading the actual speeches and publications in which it was first claimed to appear, but does not. BD2412 T 15:47, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Gouverneur Morris attribution
The following discussion formerly appeared in the spurious quotation section:

 * Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.
 * This appears to be an alteration of an supposed address to the Constitutional Convention, Mar. 25 1787. "It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God. [The Encyclopedia Americana: a library of universal knowledge, 1918 Pg. 567]" However is appears that it is unlikely that Washington addressed the convention at all on that date and the statement is reported (by Governor Morris) to have been delivered in a eulogy twelve years later, and is likely in Morris's words, not Washington's. [George Washington, Volume II / Lodge, Henry Cabot, 1850-1924 Chapter I - http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/2/6/5/12653/12653.htm] James Madison wrote that George Washington addressed the convention only once and he provides an account of that address. [The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison - http://www.constitution.org/dfc/dfc_0917.htm]

[The above remarks, including the supposed citation for Washington's speech to the convention, are not an accurate account of Madison "Notes". Washington spoke on the first day of the Convention, which was May 25, not Mar. 25 as stated above. In his notes for that Day Madison writes the following concerning Washington's election as President of the Convention: "General WASHINGTON was accordingly unanimously elected by ballot, and conducted to the Chair by Mr. R. Morris and Mr. Rutlidge; from which in a very emphatic manner he thanked the Convention for the honor they had conferred on him, reminded them of the novelty of the scene of business in which he was to act, lamented his want of better qualifications, and claimed the indulgence of the House towards the involuntary errors which his inexperience might occasion." This is obviously just a summary of the topic headings he addressed, but the occasion is in no way inconsistent as a context for with the quoted admonition. Indeed it would have been a very suitable close.

However, other evidence sources the quotation to a letter Washington wrote to a friend prior to the convention. Moreover, the quote in question is consistent with Washington's character, his general emphasis on morality and good conduct when he was Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, and the observations he made about the importance of religion and morality to republican self-government in his "Farewell Address". The attribution to Washington was so widely accepted that it was engraved above the Fifteenth Street entrance to the Department of Commerce Bldg. in Washington, D.C., and on a bronze plaque above the Eighteenth Street doorway to Constitution Hall. On both those occasions an address to the Constitutional Convention is cited as the source.

Thus, even apart from their inaccuracy, the tendentious proofs offered here above to substantiate the notion that the quotation is spuriously attributed to Washington are, at the very least, questionable. It would be better to offer a more balanced presentation under the heading of "Disputed" rather than conclusively "Spurious" attributions.]

This passage is known to have come from Morris's 1799 funeral oration; the source that describes the passage as from a letter is an undocumented 1918 sermon by Ernest W. Stires. (Presumably the minister's memory failed him; in any case he gives no authority for this assertion.) As these are not Washington's words directly, but as remembered by Morris, I have moved them to an "Attributed" section, given a bit of the context, noted that not everybody agrees they are authentic, and moved the discussion to this page. S0208 (talk) 21:55, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

The "Impossible to Govern" Fake Quotation
The situation with this spurious attribution ("It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible") is both complex (in that the original Paulding version is unattributed, at least second-hand, and quite possibly his own invention, and at least three other men were involved in reshaping the saying to its commonly-quoted form) and difficult to summarize (in that there are many variations and it is frequently found attached to genuine material). A complete account would require an entire article (such as this one at Fake History but with more detail) and show exactly how it has been inserted into the Farewell Address, the 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation, Washington's first annual message to Congress, his 11 March 1782 to John Armstrong, and his 20 August 1778 letter to Brigadier-General Nelson, among others. For this entry at Wikiquote all genuine quotations should be omitted (they can be included in their proper place among the genuine quotations if desired) and perhaps a bare statement of the various documents to which the fake statement has been attached given. S0208 (talk) 23:10, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Also the paragraphs about the genuine nonsectarian piety in a quoted statement by Washington and about people feeling it necessary to invent quotations are pure editorializing. I personally agree with them as opinions, but they really don't belong here. S0208 (talk) 23:16, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Your latest revision seems more acceptable than your earlier one, which I initially was simply going to revise, rather than revert, but after examine a few things, I believed it omitted too much, and seemed to give some credence to some of the spurious attributions. I also believe some of the source quotations should be provided in this section, to indicate the processes by which various creation of spurious assertions tend to arise. I haven't examined things thoroughly as yet, and must be leaving soon, but I believe your latest revision is probably okay, at this point. As to the assessments of the non-sectarian piety of Washington, I believe his entire life attests to this, and I do not believe such statements are overly bold ones to make, in reference to the sectarian distortions some of the misattributions seem to foster. ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 23:22, 28 March 2015 (UTC) + tweaks

Feature?
User:Illegitimate Barrister or User:Mizsatomic, maybe this page can be featured? (I see why not) ---Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 12:05, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:George Washington


text:
Larry Page

Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of the co-founders of Google along with Sergey Brin.

Quotes

 * The Star Trek computer doesn't seem that interesting. They ask it random questions, it thinks for a while. I think we can do better than that.
 * Quoted in Ben Elgin, "Google's Goal: "Understand Everything," BusinessWeek (2004-05-03).

 * I have a simple algorithm, which is, wherever you see paid researchers instead of grad students, that's not where you want to be doing research.
 * Plenary speech, AAAS Annual conference, San Francisco (February 2007).

 * If you look at things like Google Now also. Maybe you want to just have [a question] answered for you before you ask it.
 * theguardian.com.

 * It's hard to keep things moving. And that's always a big trick. I think for me, the key is setting really big goals. And, you know, with YouTube, I think we've had tremendous leadership, both with the founders and now with Salar, who's been running it.
 * Larry Page Q&A Zeitgeist Americas 2012, at the annual Zeitgeist conference in Arizona. Published on October 16, 2012. Answering the question asked by Larry Aidem: "And I'm just curious what you do both at Google and also in the way you've managed the YouTube acquisition, which I think you could look at as one of the most successful examples of somebody buying something and not screwing it up. What's consciously done to keep that ethos, both at the Google level and then at YouTube?"

 * Sometimes it’s important to wake up and stop dreaming. When a really great dream shows up, grab it
 * Larry Page’s University of Michigan Commencement Address, 2009.

 * I don't know how long I would've stayed, to be honest.
 * theguardian.com

 * Have a healthy disregard for the impossible.
 * Larry Page's Google Zeitgeist 2012 talk

Quotes about Page

 * One flying car seems absurd; Larry Page has three.
 * The Verge: "Larry Page is quietly amassing a 'flying car' empire" (19 July 2018)
 * Page has long been reclusive, a computer scientist who pondered technical problems away from the public eye, preferring to chase moonshots over magazine covers.
 * Mark Bergen and Austin Carr in Bloomberg: "Where in the World Is Larry Page?" (13 September 2018)

title: Larry Page


text:
Eduard Hanslick

Eduard Hanslick (1825–1904) was a Bohemian-born musicologist.

Quotes

 * Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.
 * Eduard Hanslick, quoted by Wolfgang Sandberger (1996) in the liner notes to the Juilliard String Quartet's Intimate Letters. Sony Classical SK 66840.

 * You cannot imagine the wild enthusiasm that these two men created in Vienna. Newspapers went into raptures over each new waltz, and innumerable articles appeared about Lanner and Strauss.
 * Quoted by Bob January

 * That the sweetly intoxicating three-four rhythm which took hold of hand & foot, necessarily eclipsed great & serious music & made the audience unfit for any intellectual effort goes without saying.
 * Quoted by Long Beach Opera Co.

 * The Prelude to Tristan and Isolde reminds me of the old Italian painting of a martyr whose intestines are slowly unwound from his body on a reel.
 * Neue Frei Presse

 * (Referring to the music of Anton Bruckner) "Nightmarish hangover style" (traumverwirrten Katzenjammerstil)
 * From Norman Lebrecht, The Book of Musical Anecdotes (1985, Sphere Books)

 * The beautiful is and remains beautiful though it arouse no emotion whatever, and though there be no one to look at it. In other words, although the beautiful exists for the gratification of an observer, it is independent of him. In this sense music, too, has no aim (object), and the mere fact that this particular art is so closely bound up with our feelings by no means justifies the assumption that its aesthetic principles depend on this union.
 * The Beautiful in Music (1854)

 * Music means itself.
 * The Beautiful in Music (1854)

 * [Music is] a language which we speak and understand but cannot translate
 * Quoted in Harper-Scott and Samson, An Introduction to Music Studies (2009) p.87

title: Eduard Hanslick