text:
Mason Weems

Mason Locke Weems (11 October 1756 – 23 May 1825), often referred to as Parson Weems, was an American printer and author known as the author of Life of Washington (1806), the source for several of the most famous legends about George Washington, "the Father of his Country," including the famous tale of the cherry tree.

Quotes

 * Even common passions... will put him up to his mettle.
 * Life of Washington, i. 6. (1800)

 * I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.
 * Portrayed as the words of the young George Washington, confessing to have damaged a cherry tree in Life of Washington (1800)

 * Feeling that the silver chord of life is loosing, and that his spirit is ready to quit her old companion the body, he extends himself on his bed — closes his eyes for the last time, with his own hands — folds his arms decently on his breast, then breathing out "Father of mercies! take me to thyself," — he fell asleep. Swift on angels' wings the brightening saint ascended; while voices more than human were heard (in Fancy's ear) warbling through the happy regions, and hymning the great procession towards the gates of heaven. His glorious coming was seen far off, and myriads of mighty angels hastened forth, with golden harps, to welcome the honored stranger.
 * Description of Washington's death in Life of Washington (1800); this fanciful account bears no relation to the report of Washington's last words by his personal secretary Tobias Lear, who wrote in his journal (14 December 1799): About ten o'clk he made several attempts to speak to me before he could effect it, at length he said, — "I am just going. Have me decently buried; and do not let my body be put into the Vault in less than three days after I am dead." I bowed assent, for I could not speak. He then looked at me again and said, "Do you understand me? I replied "Yes." "Tis well" said he.

title: Mason Weems


text:
Talk:Oliver Cromwell

Quotations of others about Oliver Cromwell

 * I've been dreaming of a time when the English are sick to death of Labour and Tories and spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell and denounce this royal line that still salutes him and will salute him forever.
 * from the song "Irish Blood, English Heart" by Steven Morrissey

... surely should go on Morrissey's page? It isn't by Oliver Cromwell, and even if we were to allow quotes by others about Cromwell this wouldn't qualify. What some popsinger says about an historical figure 350 years after his death is 'not relevant.

 * I can agree that the comment is probably an ill-considered insult, and not one that I particularly like, but I do think it is generally good and useful to allow quotations of notable figures about other notable figures on the pages of those they comment upon, whether complimentary or not. George Washington is one figure that comes to my mind, where quotes about him are used on his page, and I know there are other pages where this is done, or I would like to do it. I generally much prefer not to traffic in or promote insults towards anyone, but someone did add this to the page, and I didn't think it appropriate for me to use my dislike of the comment to make an exception to a general rule that I do like. I am aware that there is much to be said against Cromwell's actions and policies in many particulars, and feel many comments about him would probably be negative, though he himself might be quoted as saying many admirable things. His "I beseech thee… " statement has long been one of my favorites, though whether he engaged in such humility himself is arguable. I do believe the quote should stay, though I admit I have no particular fervor to replace it myself. ~ Kalki 17:52, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell / You who raped our Motherland / I hope you're rotting down in hell / For the horrors that you sent / To our misfortunate forefathers / Whom you robbed of their birthright / "To hell or Connaught"? May you burn in hell tonight!
 * from the song "Young Ned of the Hill" from "The Pogues'" album "Peace and Love" from 1989

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 on this list please move it to Oliver Cromwell. --Antiquary 15:44, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

 * A man of war is the best ambassador.

 * He who stops being better stops being good.

 * Let us restore the king to his throne, and let the king in future agree to govern with the consent of Parliament. Let us restore the old church, with its bishops, since that is what most of the people want; but since the Puritans and Separatists and Baptists have served us well in the war, let us not persecute them anymore but let them worship as they like, outside of the established church. And so let us have peace and liberty.

 * Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.
 * Variant: Make the iron hot by striking it. Also popularly attributed to William Butler Yeats.

 * Not what they want but what is good for them.
 * Letter (1658)

 * On becoming soldiers we have not ceased to be citizens.

 * To Hell or to Connaught.
 * "To hell or Connaught" was the quote and choice Cromwell gave the Irish. They would either be killed or go to Connaught, which meant death because they could not survive there.

 * What is all our histories, but God showing himself, shaking and trampling on everything that he has not planted.

 * You Physicians think I shall die, I tell you that I shall not die this hour.

Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.

 * "Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will." ~ Oliver Cromwell
 * Discovered as a concluding end quote on a Viva Frei video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBlUP7porLY). Viva often perpetuates misattributed quotes that are popular memes (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Subtlety+may+deceive+you%3B+integrity+never+will.). ~ JasonCarswell (talk) 17:45, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Oliver Cromwell


text:
Edward Dyer

Sir Edward Dyer (October 1543 – May 1607) was an English courtier and poet.

Quotes

 * My Minde to Me a Kindome Is; Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss That earth affords or grows by kind: Though much I want which most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
 * MS. Rawl 85 (1588), p. 17. A very similar but anonymous copy is in the British Museum. Additional MS. 15225, p. 85. And there is an imitation in J. Sylvester’s Works, p. 651, Hannah, Courtly Poets. Compare:
 * My mind to me a kingdom is; Such perfect joy therein I find, As far exceeds all earthly bliss That God and Nature hath assigned. Though much I want that most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
 * Byrd: Psalmes, Sonnets, etc. 1588.
 * My mind to me an empire is, While grace affordeth health.
 * Robert Southwell (1560–1595), Loo Home.
 * "Mens regnum bona possidet" (translated as "A good mind possesses a kingdom"), Seneca, Thyestes, ii. 380.

 * Some have too much, yet still do crave; I little have, and seek no more: They are but poor, though much they have,  And I am rich with little store: They poor, I rich; they beg, I give; They lack, I have; they pine, I live.
 * MS. Rawl 85 (1588), p. 17.

title: Edward Dyer


text:
Charles Spurgeon

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 – January 31, 1892) was a British Baptist minister and writer.

Quotes

 * The practice of truth is the most profitable reading of it.
 * Morning and Evening (1866), entry for June 20

 * Holiness is the architectural plan upon which God buildeth up His living temple.
 * Gleanings Among the Sheaves (New York: Sheldon and Company, 1869), "Holiness", p. 73

 * It lies not in man's right nor in man's power truly to justify the guilty. This is a miracle reserved for the Lord alone. God, the infinitely just Sovereign, knows that there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, and therefore, in the infinite sovereignty of His divine nature and in the splendor of His ineffable love, He undertakes the task, not so much of justifying the just as of justifying the ungodly. God has devised ways and means of making the ungodly man to stand justly accepted before Him: He has set up a system by which with perfect justice He can treat the guilty as if he had been all his life free from offence, yea, can treat him as if he were wholly free from sin. He justifieth the ungodly.
 * All of Grace (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1886) "God Justifieth the Ungodly", p. 9

 * The truest lengthening of life is to live while we live, wasting no time but using every hour for the highest ends. So be it this day.
 * Faith's Checkbook (1888), entry for June 22.

 * A philosopher has remarked that if a man knew that he had thirty years of life before him, it would not be an unwise thing to spend twenty of those years in mapping out a plan of living, and putting himself under rule; for he would do more with the ten well-arranged years than with the whole thirty if he spent them at random. There is much truth in that saying. A man will do little by firing off his gun if he has not learned to take aim.
 * A Good Start: A Book for Young Men and Women (1898)

 * I am not superstitious, but the first time I saw this medal, bearing the venerated likeness of John Calvin, I kissed it, imagining that no one saw the action. I was very greatly surprised when I received this magnificent present, which shall be passed round for your inspection. On the one side is John Calvin with his visage worn by disease and deep thought, and on the other side is a verse fully applicable to him: ‘He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.’ This sentence truly describes the character of that glorious man of God. Among all those who have been born of women, there has not risen a greater than John Calvin; no age, before him ever produced his equal, and no age afterwards has seen his rival. In theology, he stands alone, shining like a bright fixed star, while other leaders and teachers can only circle round him, at a great distance — as comets go streaming through space — with nothing like his glory or his permanence.
 * The Autobiography of Charles H. Spurgeon, Compiled from His Diaries, Letters, and Records by His Wife and His Private Secretary (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1898), Vol. 2 (1854-1860), pp. 371-372

Sermons (1854–1891)

 * It is a great deal easier to set a story afloat than to stop it. If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly: it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old proverb, "A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on." Nevertheless, it does not injure us; for if light as feather it travels as fast, its effect is just about as tremendous as the effect of down, when it is blown against the walls of a castle; it produces no damage whatever, on account of its lightness and littleness. Fear not, Christian. Let slander fly, let envy send forth its forked tongue, let it hiss at you, your bow shall abide in strength. Oh! shielded warrior, remain quiet, fear no ill; but, like the eagle in its lofty eyrie, look thou down upon the fowlers in the plain, turn thy bold eye upon them and say, "Shoot ye may, but your shots will not reach half-way to the pinnacle where I stand. Waste your powder upon me if ye will; I am beyond your reach." Then clap your wings, mount to heaven, and there laugh them to scorn, for ye have made your refuge God, and shall find a most secure abode.
 * "Joseph Attacked by the Archers" (April 1, 1855), Sermon 17

 * Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.
 * "The Wailing of Risca" (December 9, 1860), Sermon 349

 * If religion be false, it is the basest imposition under heaven; but if the religion of Christ be true, it is the most solemn truth that ever was known! It is not a thing that a man dares to trifle with if it be true, for it is at his soul's peril to make a jest of it. If it be not true it is detestable, but if it be true it deserves all a man's faculties to consider it, and all his powers to obey it. It is not a trifle. Briefly consider why it is not. It deals with your soul. If it dealt with your body it were no trifle, for it is well to have the limbs of the body sound, but it has to do with your soul. As much as a man is better than the garments that he wears, so much is the soul better than the body. It is your immortal soul it deals with. Your soul has to live for ever, and the religion of Christ deals with its destiny. Can you laugh at such words as heaven and hell, at glory and at damnation? If you can, if you think these trifles, then is the faith of Christ to be trifled with. Consider also with whom it connects you—with God; before whom angels bow themselves and veil their faces. Is HE to be trifled with? Trifle with your monarch if you will, but not with the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Recollect that those who have ever known anything of it tell you it is no child's play. The saints will tell you it is no trifle to be converted. They will never forget the pangs of conviction, nor the joys of faith. They tell you it is no trifle to have religion, for it carries them through all their conflicts, bears them up under all distresses, cheers them under every gloom, and sustains them in all labour. They find it no mockery. The Christian life to them is something so solemn, that when they think of it they fall down before God, and say, "Hold thou me up and I shall be safe." And sinners, too, when they are in their senses, find it no trifle. When they come to die they find it no little thing to die without Christ. When conscience gets the grip of them, and shakes them, they find it no small thing to be without a hope of pardon—with guilt upon the conscience, and no means of getting rid of it. And, sirs, true ministers of God feel it to be no trifle. I do myself feel it to be such an awful thing to preach God's gospel, that if it were not "Woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel," I would resign my charge this moment. I would not for the proudest consideration under heaven know the agony of mind I felt but this one morning before I ventured upon this platform! Nothing but the hope of winning souls from death and hell, and a stern conviction that we have to deal with the grandest of all realities, would bring me here.
 * Religion—a Reality" (June 22, 1862), Sermon 457

 * For my part, I love to stand foot to foot with an honest foeman. To open warfare, bold and true hearts raise no objections but the ground of quarrel. It is rather covert enmity which we have most cause to fear and best reason to loathe. That crafty kindness which inveigles me to sacrifice principle is the serpent in the grass -- deadly to the incautious wayfarer.
 * "Baptismal Regeneration" (June 5, 1864), Sermon 573

 * Wisdom is, I suppose, the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
 * "The Fourfold Treasure" (April 27, 1871), Sermon 991

 * Women are best when they are quiet.
 * "First Healing, and Then Service" (April 19, 1885), Sermon 1836

 * All that befalls us on our road to heaven is meant to befit us for our journey's end. Our way through the wilderness is meant to try us, and to prove us, that our evils may be discovered, repented of, and overcome, and that thus we may be without fault before the throne at the last. We are being educated for the skies, meetened for the assembly of the perfect. It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we are struggling up towards it; and we know that when Jesus shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
 * "Our Lord's Prayer for His People's Sanctification" (March 7, 1886), Sermon 1890

 * The Word of God can take care of itself, and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it. See you that lion. They have caged him for his preservation; shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes! See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion. What a clatter they make with their swords and spears! These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. O fools, and slow of heart! Open that door! Let the lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries.
 * "The Lover of God's Law Filled with Peace" (January 22, 1888), Sermon 2004

 * Men are microcosms, or little worlds; each man has his distinct sphere, wherein he dwells apart. We are so many worlds, and no one world of man exactly overlaps another. You cannot completely know your fellowman.
 * "Man Unknown to Man" (April 14, 1889), Sermon 2079

 * I would not have you exchange the gold of individual Christianity for the base metal of Christian Socialism.
 * "One Lost Sheep" (April 28, 1889), Sermon 2083

 * Hell itself does not contain greater monsters of iniquity than you and I might become. Within the magazine of our hearts there is powder enough to destroy us in an instant, if omnipotent grace did not prevent.
 * "The Mediator — The Interpreter" (July 28, 1889), Sermon 2097

 * I would rather go to Heaven doubting all the way than be lost through self-confidence.
 * "The Danger of Carnal Security" (November 8, 1896), Sermon 2490

The Sword and the Trowel (1865– )

 * The Sword and the Trowel is a magazine started by Spurgeon in 1865. Now called Sword & Trowel, it still enjoys an extensive readership.

 * There are a few of us who could scarcely do more than we are doing of our own regular order of work, but there may yet be spare moments for little extra efforts of another sort which in the aggregate, in the run of a year, might produce a great total of real practical result. We must, like goldsmiths, carefully sweep our shops, and gather up the filings of the gold which God has given us in the shape of time. Select a large box and place in it as many cannon-balls as it will hold, it is after a fashion full, but it will hold more if smaller matters be found. Bring a quantity of marbles, very many of these may be packed in the spaces between the larger globes; the box is full now, but only full in a sense, it will contain more yet. There are interstices in abundance into which you may shake a considerable quantity of small shot, and now the chest is filled beyond all question, but yet there is room. You cannot put in another shot or marble, much less another cannon-ball, but you will find that several pounds of sand will slide down between the larger materials, and even then between the granules of sand, if you empty pondering there will be space for all the water, and for the same quantity several times repeated. When there is no space for the great there may be room for the little; where the little cannot enter the less can make its way; and where the less is shut out, the least of all may find ample room and verge enough.
 * "A Spur for a Free Horse" (February 1866)

 * Is it not proven beyond all dispute that there is no limit to the enormities which men will commit when they are once persuaded that they are keepers of other men's consciences? To spread religion by any means, and to crush heresy by all means is the practical inference from the doctrine that one man may control another's religion. Given the duty of a state to foster some one form of faith, and by the sure inductions of our nature slowly but certainly persecution will occur. To prevent for ever the possibility of Papists roasting Protestants, Anglicans hanging Romish priests, and Puritans flogging Quakers, let every form of state-churchism be utterly abolished, and the remembrance of the long curse which it has cast upon the world be blotted out for ever.
 * "The Inquisition", (August 1868)

Lectures to My Students (1870)

 * Lectures to My Students, 2 vol. (New York: American Tract Society, 1870)

 * Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.
 * First Series, Lecture XI: The Minister's Fainting Fits, p. 266

 * A vigorous temper is not always an evil. Men who are as easy as an old shoe are generally of as little worth.
 * Second Series, Lecture II: The Necessity of Ministerial Progress, p. 58

 * Our great object of glorifying God is … to be mainly achieved by the winning of souls...
 * Second Series, Lecture X: On Conversion as Our Aim, p. 265

 * Do not close a single sermon without addressing the ungodly.
 * Second Series, Lecture X: On Conversion as Our Aim, p. 276

The Salt-Cellars (1885)

 * The Salt-Cellars, 2 vol. (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1885)

 * A man who does nothing never has time to do anything.
 * Vol. 1, p. 28

 * By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
 * Vol. 1, p. 89

 * Don't rely too much on labels, For too often they are fables.
 * Vol. 1, p. 134

 * Every generation needs regeneration.
 * Vol. 1, p. 152

To play the second fiddle well.
 * It needs more skill than I can tell
 * Vol. 1, p. 284

 * Of two evils choose neither.
 * Vol. 1, p. 297

 * We are all, at times, unconscious prophets.
 * Vol. 2, p. 8

 * Mind your till, and till your mind.
 * Vol. 2, p. 20

The Soul-Winner (1895)

 * The Soul-Winner; or, How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour

 * Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister; it should be the main pursuit of every true believer.

 * The gospel is a reasonable system, and it appeals to men's understanding; it is a matter for thought and consideration, and it appeals to the conscience and reflecting powers.

 * The preacher's work is to throw sinners down in utter helplessness, that they may be compelled to look up to Him who alone can help them.

 * I believe that much of the secret of soul-winning lies in having bowels of compassion, in having spirits that can be touched with the feeling of human infirmities.

 * Soul-serving requires a heart that beats hard against the ribs. It requires a soul full of the milk of human kindness.  This is the sine qua non of success.

 * It is a grand thing to see a man thoroughly possessed with one master-passion. Such a man is sure to be strong, and if the master-principle be excellent, he is sure to be excellent, too.

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

 * There are believers who by God's grace, have climbed the mountains of full assurance and near communion, their place is with the eagle in his eyrie, high aloft; they are like the strong mountaineer, who has trodden the virgin snow, who has breathed the fresh, free air of the Alpine regions, and therefore his sinews are braced, and his limbs are vigorous; these are they who do great exploits, being mighty men, men of renown.
 * P. 18.

 * Many books in my library are now behind and beneath me. They were good in their way once, and so were the clothes I wore when I was ten years old; but I have outgrown them. Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.
 * P. 37.

 * In agony unknown He bleeds away His life; in terrible throes He exhausts His soul. "Eloi! Eloi! lama sabachthani?" And then see! they pierce His side, and forthwith runneth out blood and water! This is the shedding of blood, the terrible pouring out of blood, without which, for you and the whole human race, there is no remission.
 * P. 73.

 * A child of God should be a visible Beatitude, for joy and happiness, and a living Doxology, for gratitude and adoration.
 * P. 104.

 * God works, and therefore we work; God is with- us, and therefore we are with God, and stand on His side.
 * P. 122

 * Jesus was a great worker, and His disciples must not be afraid of hard work.
 * P. 128.

 * I believe that when Paul plants and Apollos waters, God gives the increase; and I have no patience with those who throw the blame on God when it belongs to themselves.
 * P. 129.

 * When men's hearts are melted under the preaching of the word, or by sickness, or the loss of friends, believers should be very eager to stamp the truth upon the prepared mind. Such opportunities are to be seized with holy eagerness.
 * P. 129.

 * The greatest, strongest, mightiest plea for the church of God in the world is the existence of the Spirit of God in its midst, and the works of the Spirit of God are the true evidences of Christianity. They say miracles are withdrawn, but the Holy Spirit is the standing miracle of the church of God to-day.
 * P. 137.

 * I think I speak not too strongly when I say that a church in the land without the Spirit of God is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember you stand in somebody else's way; you are a tree bearing no fruit, standing where another fruitful tree might grow.
 * P. 145.

 * Doubts about the fundamentals of the gospel exist in certain churches, I am told, to a large extent. My dear friends, where there is a warm-hearted church, you do not hear of them. I never saw a fly light on a red-hot plate.
 * P. 148.

 * The church may go through her dark ages, but Christ is with her in the midnight; she may pass through her fiery furnace, but Christ is in the midst of the flame with her.
 * P. 149.

 * Losses and crosses are heavy to bear; but when our hearts are right with God, it is wonderful how easy the yoke becomes.
 * P. 169.

 * Do not wade far out into the dangerous sea of this world's comfort. Take the good that God provides you, but say of it, "It passeth away;" for, indeed, it is but a temporary supply for a temporary need. Never suffer your goods to become your God.
 * P. 207.

 * This is faith, receiving the truth of Christ; first knowing it to be true, and then acting upon that belief.
 * P. 227.

 * The first thing in faith is knowledge. What we know we must also agree unto. What we agree unto we must rest upon alone for salvation. It will not save me to know that Christ is a Saviour; but it will save me to trust Him to be my Saviour.
 * P. 227.

 * Faith has a saving connection with Christ. Christ is on the shore, so to speak, holding the rope, and as we lay hold of it with the hand of our confidence, He pulls us to shore; but all good works having no connection with Christ are drifted along down the gulf of fell despair.
 * P. 228.

 * He that buildeth his nest upon a Divine promise shall find it abide and remain until he shall fly away to the land where promises are lost in fulfillments.
 * P. 239.

 * The vendors of flowers in the streets of London are wont to commend them to customers by crying: "All a blowing and a growing." It would be no small praise to Christians if we could say as much for them.
 * P. 294.

 * God looketh upon any thing we say, or any thing we do, and if He seeth Christ in it, He accepteth it; but if there be no Christ, He putteth it away as a foul thing.
 * P. 315.

 * I never wish to be more charitable than Christ. I find it written: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
 * P. 490.

 * Can you by humble faith look to Jesus and say: "My substitute, my refuge, ray shield; Thou art my rock, my trust; in Thee do I confide? "Then, beloved, to you I have nothing to say, except this: " Never be afraid when you see God's power; for now that you are forgiven and accepted, now that by faith you have fled to Christ for refuge, the power of God need no more terrify you than the shield and sword of the warrior need terrify his wife and child."
 * P. 591.

 * My trust is not that I am holy, but that, being unholy, Christ died for me. My rest is here, not in what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is and must be,— in what Christ did and is still doing as He stands before yonder throne of glory.
 * P. 592.

 * If you tell your troubles to God, you put them into the grave; they will never rise again when you have committed them to Him. If you roll your burden anywhere else, it will roll back again like the stone of Sisyphus.
 * P. 596.

 * I would sooner walk in the dark, and hold hard to a promise of my God, than trust in the light of the brightest day that ever dawned.
 * P. 601.

title: Charles Spurgeon


text:
George Shelvocke

Captain George Shelvocke (1690–1728) was an English privateer who wrote a famous 1723 book based on his exploits, A Voyage Round the World By Way of The Great South Sea.

Sourced

 * They had half a mind to refuse me a passage.
 * A Voyage Around the World, p. 462. (1726)

title: George Shelvocke


text:
George Chapman

George Chapman (c. 1559 – May 12, 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet.

Quotes

 * Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity... but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'...
 * Preface to Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)

 * Obscuritie in affection of words, & indigested concets, is pedanticall and childish...
 * Preface to Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)

 * Use makes things nothing huge, and huge things nothing.
 * Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595), line 718.

 * None ever loved but at first sight they loved.
 * The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (1596); reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
 * Compare: "Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?" Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander (1598).

That waking breaks, and fills us with extremes.
 * Love is a golden bubble, full of dreams,
 * Hero and Leander: a poem (1600), begun by Christopher Marlowe, and finished by George Chapman. Sestiad III.

 * For your behaviour, let it be free and negligent, not clogged with ceremony or observance; give no man honour, but upon equal terms; for look how much thou giv'st any man above that, so much thou tak'st from thyself.
 * May Day (1611), Act I, scene i.

 * And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy.
 * The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613)

Who breaks no law is subject to no king.
 * He that to nought aspires, doth nothing need;
 * The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613), Act IV, scene i.

The curb to your tame spirits.
 * Danger (the spur of all great minds) is ever
 * The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613), Act V, scene i.

His strong hands hanging down, and all with froth His cheeks and nostrils flowing, voice and breath Spent to all use, and down he sunk to death. The sea had soaked his heart through; all his veins His toils had rack'd t'a labouring woman's pains. Dead weary was he.
 * Then forth he came, his both knees falt'ring, both
 * Homer's Odysses (1614), Book V, line 608; shipwrecked Odysseus washes up on Scheria.

But drunke as often.
 * Nor could the foole abstaine,
 * Homer's Odysses (1614), Book IX, line 496

 * An ill weed grows apace.
 * An Humorous Day's Mirth; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * Black is a pearl in a woman's eye.
 * An Humorous Day's Mirth; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Is righted even when men grant they err.
 * Virtue is not malicious; wrong done her
 * Monsieur D'Olive, Act I, scene i; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

One passion doth expel another still.
 * For one heat, all know, doth drive out another,
 * Monsieur D'Olive, Act V, scene i; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

A virtuous woman's counsel; her wing'd spirit Is feather'd oftentimes with heavenly words.
 * Let no man value at a little price
 * The Gentleman Usher, Act IV, scene i; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

So lives obscure the starriest souls disclose.
 * As night the life-inclining stars best shows,
 * Epilogue to Translations; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * Promise is most given when the least is said.
 * Musæus of Hero and Leander; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

The Shadow of Night (1594)
This earthly altar endless fumes expires; Therefore, in fumes of sighs and fires of grief, To fearful chances thou send'st bold relief, Happy, thrice happy type, and nurse of death, Who, breathless, feeds on nothing but our breath, In whom must virtue and her issue live, Or die for ever.
 * Great goddess, to whose throne in Cynthian fires,
 * Hymnus in noctem, line 1

(As curious ladies do, their public cates), This train, with meteors, comets, lightenings, The dreadful presence of our empress sings: Which grant for ever (O eternal Night) Till virtue flourish in the light of light.
 * Music, and mood, she loves, but love she hates
 * Hymnus in noctem, line 398

All Fools (1605)
In that she never studied to be fairer Than Nature made her; beauty cost her nothing, Her virtues were so rare.'''
 * '''Exceeding fair she was not; and yet fair
 * Act I, scene i.

Causing a spring of virtues where he shines.
 * I tell thee Love is Nature's second sun,
 * Act I, scene i.

Gazetta. The pansy this. Cor. Oh, that's for lover's thoughts.
 * Cornelia. What flowers are these?
 * Act II, scene i.

In matters that belong to other men, What beetles in our own!
 * How blinde is pride! what eagles we are still
 * Act IV, scene i.

Hath divers ways to advance her followers: To some she gives honour without deserving, To other some, deserving without honour.
 * Fortune, the great commandress of the world,
 * Act V, scene i.

 * Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.
 * Act V, scene i.

Eastward Hoe (1605)

 * Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee. Light gains make heavy purses. 'Tis good to be merry and wise.
 * Act I, scene i.

 * Make ducks and drakes with shillings.
 * Act I, scene i.

 * Only a few industrious Scots perhaps, who indeed are dispersed over the face of the whole earth. But as for them, there are no greater friends to Englishmen and England, when they are out on 't, in the world, than they are. And for my own part, I would a hundred thousand of them were there [Virginia]; for we are all one countrymen now, ye know, and we should find ten times more comfort of them there than we do here.
 * Act III, scene ii.

 * Enough 's as good as a feast.
 * Act III, scene ii.

 * Fair words never hurt the tongue.
 * Act IV, scene i.

 * Let pride go afore, shame will follow after.
 * Act IV, scene i.

 * I will neither yield to the song of the siren nor the voice of the hyena, the tears of the crocodile nor the howling of the wolf.
 * Act V, scene i

Bussy D'Ambois (1607)
So great men flourish; and do imitate Unskilful statuaries, who suppose, In forging a Colossus, if they make him Straddle enough, strut, and look big, and gape, Their work is goodly: so men merely great In their affected gravity of voice, Sourness of countenance, manners' cruelty, Authority, wealth, and all the spawn of fortune, Think they bear all the kingdom's worth before them, Yet differ not from those colossic statues, Which, with heroic forms without o'erspread, Within are naught but mortar, flint and lead.
 * As cedars beaten with continual storms,
 * Act I, scene i.

But of a shadow, summ'd with all his substance.'''
 * '''Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream
 * Act I, scene i.

 * To put a girdle round about the world.
 * Act I, scene i.

That shuts still as it opes, and leaves no tracts Nor prints of precedent for poor men's facts.
 * His deeds inimitable, like the sea
 * Act I, scene i.

In acts exemplary, not only win Ourselves good names, but doth to others give Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.
 * So our lives
 * Act I, scene i.

Unless he be a Politician?
 * This was a sleight well mask'd. O, what is man,
 * Act I, scene i.

Offends no law, and is a king indeed.'''
 * '''Who to himself is law no law doth need,
 * Act II, scene i.

To render that it works on like itself.
 * Each natural agent works but to this end,—
 * Act III, scene i.

 * Man is a name of honour for a king.
 * Act IV, scene i.

The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608)
As if a man were taken quick to heaven.
 * 'Tis immortality to die aspiring,
 * Act I, scene i; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Loves t' have his sails fill'd with a lusty wind, Even till his sail-yards tremble, his masts crack, And his rapt ship run on her side so low That she drinks water, and her keel plows air.
 * Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea
 * Act III, scene i; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

What life and death is; there's not any law Exceeds his knowledge; neither is it lawful That he should stoop to any other law. He goes before them, and commands them all, That to himself is a law rational.
 * There is no danger to the man that knows
 * Act III, scene i.

'Gainst all the poisons of infirmity; Of all misfortune, injury, and death, That makes a man in tune still in himself; Free from the hell to be his own accuser, Ever in quiet, endless joy enjoying; No strife nor no sedition in his powers; No motion in his will against his reason, No thought 'gainst thought— But (all parts in him, friendly and secure, Fruitful of all best things in all worst seasons) He can with every wish be in their plenty; When the infectious guilt of one foul crime Destroys the free content of all our time.
 * O Innocence, the sacred amulet
 * Act IV, scene i.

Whose ends will make him greatest, and not best.
 * He is at no end of his actions blest
 * Act V, scene i; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets (1611)
Infinite sorrows on the Greeks, and many brave souls loosed From breasts heroic''', sent them far to that invisible cave That no light comforts, and their limbs to dogs and vultures gave; To all which Jove's will gave effect; from whom first strife begun Betwixt Atrides, king of men, and Thetis' godlike son.
 * '''Achilles' baneful wrath resound, O Goddess, that imposed
 * Book I, line 1, p. 1

Rose from the hills.
 * The lady of the light, the rosy-fingered Morn,
 * Book I, line 460, p. 11

The Greekes and Trojans to endure, for so admired a Dame, So many miseries, and so long? In her sweet countenance shine Lookes like the Godesses.
 * What man can blame
 * Book III, line 167, p. 41

And then the horse-hair plume, with which he was so overlaid, Nodded so horribly, he clinged back to his nurse, and cried. Laughter affected his great sire, who doffed and laid aside His fearful helm, that on the earth cast round about it light; Then took and kissed his loving son, and (balancing his weight In dancing him) these loving vows to living Jove he used, And all the other bench of Gods: "O you that have infused Soul to this infant, now set down this blessing on his star: Let his renown be clear as mine; equal his strength in war."
 * This said, he reached to take his son; who, of his arms afraid,
 * Book VI, line 506, p. 94

 * As far as white Aurora's dews are sprinkled through the air.
 * Book VII, line 374, p. 104

And stars shine clear; to whose sweet beams, high prospects, and the brows Of all steep hills and pinnacles, thrust up themselves for shows; And even the lowly valleys joy, to glitter in their sight, When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light, And all the signs in heaven are seen that glad the shepherd's heart.
 * As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind,
 * Book VIII, line 487, p. 115

To helpe thee, nor recall thy sonne: impacience ever breeds Ill upon ill, makes worst things worse.
 * Mourne not inevitable things; thy teares can spring no deeds
 * Book XXIV, line 494, p. 336

Revenge for Honour (1654)

 * Attributed, probably falsely, to Chapman. The play may have been written by Henry Glapthorne.

That rising and declining cast large shadows; But when his beams are dressed in's midday brightness, Yields none at all: when they are farthest from Success, their guilt reflection does display The largest shows of events fair and prosperous.
 * Our hopes, I see, resemble much the sun,
 * Act II, scene i.

 * I am ashamed the law is such an ass.
 * Act III, scene ii.

 * Words writ in waters.
 * Act V, scene ii; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * They're only truly great who are truly good.
 * Act V, scene ii; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany (1654)

 * Attributed, probably falsely, to Chapman. Perhaps written by George Peele.

Being flattered, is a lamb; threatened, a lion.'''
 * '''I know an Englishman,
 * Act I, scene ii, lines 208–209.

Quotes about Chapman

 * If Homer could return from Elysium to read all the English renderings, he would surely find in Chapman his truest son, a man who has fed on lions' marrow.
 * Douglas Bush, English Literature in the Earlier Seventeenth Century, 1600–1660 (1962), p. 63

 * The translation of Homer, published by George Chapman, in the reign of queen Elizabeth and king James, is one of the greatest treasures the English language has to boast.
 * William Godwin, Lives of Edward and John Philips (1815), Chap. X, p. 242

 * He has more thinking than many of the old dramatists; and the praise of one of his critics, though strongly worded, is not without some foundation, that we "seldom find richer contemplations on the nature of man and the world."
 * Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe (1839), p. 621

 * Chapman, ... where he lays aside the gravity of the philosopher and poet, discovers an unexpected comic vein, distinguished by equal truth of nature and lively good humour.
 * William Hazlitt, Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1821), p. 107

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific—and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise— Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
 * Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
 * John Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816)

 * Of all the English Play-writers, Chapman perhaps approaches nearest to Shakspeare in the descriptive and didactic, in passages which are less purely dramatic. Dramatic Imitation was not his talent. He could not go out of himself, as Shakspeare could shift at pleasure, to inform and animate other existences, but in himself he had an eye to perceive and a soul to embrace all forms. He would have made a great Epic Poet, if, indeed, he has not abundantly shown himself to be one; for his Homer is not so properly a Translation as the Stories of Achilles and Ulysses re-written. The earnestness and passion which he has put into every part of these poems would be incredible to a reader of mere modern translations. His almost Greek zeal for the honour of his heroes is only paralleled by that fierce spirit of Hebrew bigotry, with which Milton, as if personating one of the Zealots of the old law, clothed himself when he sate down to paint the acts of Samson against the Uncircumcised. The great obstacle to Chapman's Translations being read is their unconquerable quaintness. He pours out in the same breath the most just and natural and the most violent and forced expressions. He seems to grasp whatever words come first to hand during the impetus of inspiration, as if all other must be inadequate to the divine meaning. But passion (the all in all in Poetry) is everywhere present, raising the low, dignifying the mean, and putting sense into the absurd. He makes his readers glow, weep, tremble, take any affection which he pleases, be moved by words, or in spite of them, be disgusted and overcome their disgust. I have often thought that the vulgar misconception of Shakspeare, as of a wild irregular genius "in whom great faults are compensated by great beauties," would be really true applied to Chapman.
 * Charles Lamb, Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, who lived about the time of Shakspeare (1808), footnote on pp. 98–99

title: George Chapman


text:
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture is a 1991 novel by Douglas Coupland.

Neologisms
[These definitions are provided as footnotes within the book]

 * 101-ism - the tendency to pick apart, often in minute detail, all aspects of life using half-understood pop psychology as a tool. (page 85)

 * 2 + 2 = 5-ism - caving in to a target marketing strategy aimed at oneself after holding out for a long period of time: "Oh, all right, I'll buy your stupid cola. Now leave me alone." (page 139)

A

 * air family - describes the false sense of community experienced among coworkers in an office environment. (page 111)

 * anti-sabbatical - a job taken with the sole intention of staying only for a limited period of time (often one year). The intention is usually to raise enough funds to partake in another, more personally meaningful activity such as watercolor sketching in Crete or designing computer knit sweaters in Hong Kong. Employers are rarely informed of intentions. (page 35)

 * anti-victim device (AVD) - a small fashion accessory worn on an otherwise conservative outfit which announces to the world that one still has a spark of individuality burning inside: 1940s retro ties and earrings (on men), feminist buttons, noserings (on women), and the now almost completely extinct teeny weeny "rattail" haircut (both sexes). (page 114)

 * architectural indigestion - the almost obsessive need to live in a "cool" architectural environment. Frequently related objects of fetish include framed black-and-white art photography (Diane Arbus a favorite); simplistic pine furniture; matte black high-tech items such as TVs, stereos, and telephones; low-wattage ambient lighting; a lamp, chair, or table that alludes to the 1950s; cut flowers with complex names. (page 75)

 * Armanism - after Giorgio Armani: an obsession with mimicking the seamlesss and (more importantly) controlled ethos of Italian culture. Like Japanese minimalism, Armanism reflects a profound inner need for control. (page 82)

B

 * Bambification - the mental conversion of flesh and blood living creatures into cartoon characters possessing bourgeois Judeo-Christian attitudes and morals. (page 48)

 * black dens - where Black Holes live; often unheated warehouses with Day-Glo spray painting, mutilated mannequins, Elvis references, dozens of overflowing ashtrays, broken mirror sculptures, and Velvet Underground music playing in background. (page 135)

 * black holes - an X generation subgroup best known for their possession of almost entirely black wardrobes. (page 135)

 * bleeding ponytail - an eldery sold-out baby boomer who pines for hippie or pre-sellout days. (page 21)

 * boomer envy - envy of material wealth and long-range material security accrued by older members of the baby boom generation by virtue of fortunate births. (page 21)

 * Bradyism - a multisibling sensiblity derived from having grown up in large families. A rarity in those born after approximately 1965, symptoms of Bradyism include a facility for mind games, emotional withdrawal in situations of overcrowding, and a deeply felt need for a well-defined personal space. (page 134)

 * Brazilification - the widening gulf between the rich and the poor and the accompanying disappearance of the middle classes. (page 11)

 * bread and circuits - the electronic era tendency to view party politics as corny — no longer relevant or meaningful or useful to modern societal issues, and in many cases dangerous. (page 80)

C

 * café minimalism - to espouse a philosophy of minimalism without actually putting into practice any of its tenets. (page 107)

 * celebrity schadenfreude - lurid thrills derived from talking about celebrity deaths. (page 70)

 * clique maintenance - the need of one generation to see the generation following it as deficient so as to bolster its own collective ego: "Kids today do nothing. They're so apathetic. We used to go out and protest. All they do is shop and complain." (page 21)

 * consensus terrorism - the process that decides in-office attitudes and behavior. (page 21)

 * conspicious minimalism - a life-style tactic similar to Status Substitution. The nonownership of material goods flaunted as a token of moral and intellectual superiority. (page 107)

 * conversational slumming - the self-conscious enjoyment of a given conversation precisely for its lack of intellectual rigor. A major spin-off activity of Recreational Slumming. (page 113)

 * cryptotechnophobia - the secret belief that technology is more of a menace than a boon. (page 172)

 * cult of aloneness - the need for autonomy at all costs, usually at the expense of long-term relationships. Often brought about by overly high expectations of others. (page 69)

D

 * decade blending - in clothing: the indiscriminate combination of two or more items from various decades to create a personal mood: Sheila = Mary Quant earrings (1960s) + cork wedgie platform shoes (1970s) + black leather jacket (1950s and 1980s). (page 15)

 * derision preemption - a life-style tactic; the refusal to go out on any sort of emotional limb so as to avoid mockery from peers. Derision Preemption is the main goal of Knee-Jerk Irony. (page 150)

 * diseases for kisses (hyperkarma) - a deeply rooted belief that punishment will somehow always be far greater than the crime: ozone holes for littering. (page 48)

 * divorce assumption - a form of Safety Net-ism, the belief that if a marriage doesn't work out, then there is no problem because partners can simply seek a divorce. (page 34)

 * Dorian Graying - the unwillingness to gracefully allow one's body to show signs of aging. (page 164)

 * down-nesting - the tendency of parents to move to smaller, guest-room-free houses after the children have moved away so as to avoid children aged 20 to 30 who have boomeranged home. (page 144)

 * dumpster clocking - the tendency when looking at objects to guesstimate the amount of time they will take to eventually decompose: "Ski boots are the worst. Solid plastic. They'll be around till the sun goes supernova." (page 162)

E-G

 * earth tones - a youthful subgroup interested in vegetarianism, tie-dyed outfits, mild recreational drugs, and good stereo equipment. Earnest, frequently lacking in humor. (page 26)

 * emallgration - migration toward lower-tech, lower-information environments containing a lessened emphasis on consumerism. (page 173)

 * emotional ketchup burst - the bottling up of opinions and emotions inside oneself so that they explosively burst forth all at once, shocking and confusing employers and friends — most of whom thought things were fine. (page 21)

 * the emperor's new mall - the popular notion that shopping malls exist on the inside only and have no exterior. The suspension of visual belief engendered by this notion allows shoppers to pretend that the large, cement blocks thrust into their environment, do not, in fact, exist. (page 71)

 * ethnomagnetism - the tendency of young people to live in emotionally demonstrative, more unrestrained ethnic neighborhoods: "You wouldn't understand it there, mother — they hug where I live now." (page 26)

 * expatriate solipsism - when arriving in a foreign travel destination one had hoped was undiscovered, only to find many people just like oneself; the peeved refusal to talk to said people because they have ruined one's elitist travel fantasy. (page 172)

 * fame-induced apathy - the attitude that no activity is worth pursuing unless one can become very famous pursuing it. Fame-induced apathy mimics laziness, but its roots are much deeper. (page 150)

 * green division - to know the difference between envy and jealousy. (page 150)

H-L

 * historical slumming - the act of visiting locations such as diners, smokestack industrial sites, rural villages — locations where time appears to have been frozen many years back — so as to experience relief when one returns back to "the present". (page 11)

 * historical underdosing - to live in a period of time when nothing seems to happen. Major symptoms include addiction to newspapers, magazines, and TV news broadcasts. (page 7)

 * historical overdosing - to live in a period of time when too much seems to happen. Major symptoms include addiction to newspapers, magazines, and TV news broadcasts. (page 7)

 * homeowner envy - feelings of jealousy generated in the young and the disenfranchised when facing gruesome housing statistics. (page 144)

 * Jack-and-Jill party - a Squire tradition; baby showers to which both men and women friends are invited as opposed to only women. Doubled purchasing power of bisexual attendance brings gift values up to Eisenhower-era standards. (page 143)

 * Japanese minimalism - the most frequently offered interior design aesthetic used by rootless career-hopping young people. (page 75)

 * knee-jerk irony - the tendency to make flippant ironic comments as a reflexive matter of course in everyday conversation. (page 150)

 * legislated nostalgia - to force a body of people to have memories they do not actually possess: "How can I be a part of the 1960s generation when I don't even remember any of it?" (page 41)

 * lessness - a philosophy whereby one reconciles oneself with diminishing expectations of material wealth: "I've given up wanting to make a killing or be a bigshot. I just want to find happiness and maybe open up a little roadside cafe in Idaho." (page 54)

M

 * McJob - a low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector. Frequently considered a satisfying career choice by people who have never held one. (page 5)

 * me-ism - a search by an individual, in the absence of training in traditional religious tenets, to formulate a personally tailored religion by himself. Most frequently a mishmash of reincarnation, personal dialogue with a nebulously defined god figure, naturalism, and karmic eye-for-eye attitudes. (page 126)

 * mental ground zero - the location where one visualizes oneself during the dropping of the atomic bomb; frequently, a shopping mall. (page 63)

 * metaphasia - an inability to perceive metaphor. (page 164)

 * mid-twenties breakdown - a period of mental collapse occuring in one's twenties, often caused by an inability to function outside of school or structured environments coupled with a realization of one's essential aloneness in the world. Often marks induction into the ritual of pharmaceutical usage. (page 27)

 * musical hairsplitting - the act of classifying music and musicians into pathologically picayune categories: "The Vienna Franks are a good example of urban white acid folk revivalism crossed with ska." (page 85)

N-O

 * native aping - pretending to be a native when visiting a foreign destination. (page 172)

 * now denial - to tell oneself that the only time worth living in is the past and that the only time that may ever be interesting again is the future. (page 41)

 * nutritional slumming - food whose enjoyment stems not from flavor but from a complex mixture of class connotations, nostalgia signals, and packaging semiotics: Katie and I bought this tub of Multi-Whip instead of real whip cream because we thought petroleum distillate whip topping seemed like the sort of food that air force wives stationed in Pensacola back in the early sixties would feed their husbands to celebrate a career promotion. (page 120)

 * obscurism - the practice of peppering daily life with obscure references (forgotten films, dead TV stars, unpopular books, defunct countries, etc.) as a subliminal means of showcasing both one's education and one's wish to disassociate from the world of mass culture. (page 165)

 * occupational slumming - taking a job well beneath one's skill or education level as a means of retreat from adult responsibilities and/or avoiding possible failure in one's true occupation. (page 113)

 * o'propriation - the inclusion of advertising, packaging, and entertainment jargon from earlier eras in everyday speech for ironic and/or comic effect: "Kathleen's Favorite Dead Celebrity party was tons o' fun" or "Dave really thinks of himself as a zany, nutty, wacky, and madcap guy, doesn't he?" (page 107)

 * option paralysis - the tendency, when given unlimited choices, to make none. (page 139)

 * overboarding - overcompensating for fears about the future by plunging headlong into a job or life-style seemingly unrelated to one's previous life interests; i.e., Amway sales, aerobics, the Republican party, a career in law, cults, McJobs,... (page 26)

 * ozmosis - the inability of one's job to live up to one's self-image. (page 25)

P

 * paper rabies - hypersensitivity to littering. (page 127)

 * personality tithe - a price paid for becoming a couple; previously amusing human beings become boring: "Thanks for inviting us, but Noreen and I are going to look at flatware catalogs tonight. Afterward we're going to watch the shopping channel." (page 143)

 * personal tabu - a small rule for living, bordering on a superstition, that allows one to cope with everyday life in the absence of cultural or religious dictums. (page 74)

 * platonic shadow - a nonsexual friendship with a member of the opposite sex. (page 62)

 * poor buoyancy - the realization that one was a better person when one had less money. (page 82)

 * poorochondria - hypochondria derived from not having medical insurance. (page 74)

 * poverty jet set - a group of people given to chronic traveling at the expense of long-term job stability or a permanent residence. Tend to have doomed and extremely expensive phone-call relationships with people named Serge or Ilyana. Tend to discuss frequent-flyer programs at parties. (page 6)

 * poverty lurks - financial paranoia instilled in offspring by depression-era parents. (page 137)

 * power mist - the tendency of hierarchies in office environments to be diffuse and preclude crisp articulation. (page 25)

 * pull-the-plug, slice the pie - a fantasy in which an offspring mentally tallies up the net worth of his parents. (page 137)

Q-R

 * QFD - quelle fucking drag. "Jamie got stuck at Rome airport for thirty-six hours and it was, like, totally QFD." (page 120)

 * QFM - quelle fashion mistake: "It was really QFM, I mean painter pants? That's 1979 beyond belief." (page 120)

 * rebellion postponement - the tendency in one's youth to avoid traditionally youthful activities and artistic experiences in order to obtain serious career experience. Sometimes results in the mourning for lost youth at about age thirty, followed by silly haircuts and expensive joke-inducing wardrobes. (page 106)

 * recreational slumming - the practice of participating in recreational activities of a class one perceives as lower than one's own: "Karen! Donald! Let's go bowling tonight! And don't worry about shoes... apparently you can rent them." (page 113)

 * recurving - leaving one job to take another that pays less but places one back on the learning curve. (page 24)

S

 * safety net-ism - the belief that there will always be a financial and emotional safety net to buffer life's hurts. Usually parents. (page 34)

 * sick building migration - the tendency of younger workers to leave or avoid jobs in unhealthy office environments or workplaces affected by the Sick Building Syndrome. (page 24)

 * spectacularism - a fascination with extreme situations. (page 50)

 * Squires - the most common X generation subgroup and the only subgroup given to breeding. Squires exist almost exclusively in couples and are recognizable by their frantic attempts to recreate a semblance of Eisenhower-era plenitude in their daily lives in the face of exorbitant housing prices and two-job life-styles. Squires tend to be continually exhausted from their voraciously acquisitive pursuit of furniture and knickknacks. (page 135)

 * squirming - discomfort inflicted on young people by old people who see no irony in their gestures. Karen died a thousand deaths as her father made a big show of tasting a recently manufactured bottle of wine before allowing it to be poured as the family sat in Steak Hut. (page 112)

 * Strangelove reproduction - having children to make up for the fact that one no longer believes in the future. (page 135)

 * status substitution - using an object with intellectual or fashionable cachet to substitute for an object that is merely pricey: "Brian, you left your copy of Camus in your brother's BMW." (page 54)

 * successophobia - the fear that if one is successful, then one's personal needs will be forgotten and one will no longer have one's childish needs catered to. (page 30)

 * survivulousness - the tendency to visualize oneself enjoying being the last remaining person on earth: "I'd take a helicopter up and throw microwave ovens down on the Taco Bell." (page 62)

T-Y

 * tele-parablizing - morals used in everyday life that derive from TV sitcom plots: "That's just like the episode where Jan lost her glasses!" (page 120)

 * the tens - the first decade of a new century. (page 163)

 * terminal wanderlust - a condition common to people of transient middle-class upbrings. Unable to feel rooted in any one environment, they move continually in the hopes of finding an idealized sense of community in the next location. (page 171)

 * ultra short term nostalgia - homesickness for the extremely recent past: "God, things seemed so much better in the world last week." (page 96)

 * underdogging - the tendency to almost invariably side with the underdog in a given situation. The consumer expression of this trait is the purchasing of less successful, "sad", or failing products: "I know these Vienna franks are heart failure on a stick, but they were so sad looking up against all the other yuppie food items that I just had to buy them." (page 137)

 * vaccinated time travel - to fantasize about traveling backwards in time, but only with proper vaccinations. (page 11)

 * veal-fattening pen - small, cramped office workstations built of fabric-covered disassemblable wall partitions and inhabited by junior staff members. Named after the small preslaughter cubicles used by the cattle industry. (page 20)

 * virgin runway - a travel destination chosen in the hopes that no one else has chosen it. (page 172)

 * voter's block - the attempt, however futile, to register dissent with the current political system by simply not voting. (page 80)

 * yuppie wannabe's - an X generation subgroup that believes the myth of a yuppie life-style being both satisfying and viable. Tend to be highly in debt, involved in some form of substance abuse, and show a willingness to talk about Armageddon after three drinks. (page 91)