Escritas — Quotes

Ezra Pound

Winter is icumen in, Lhude sing Goddamm, Raineth drop and staineth slop, And how the wind doth ramm! Sing: Goddamm. 1

George Meredith

For singing till his heaven fills, ’Tis love of earth that he instills, And ever winging up and up, Our valley is his golden cup, And he the wine which over flows To lift us with him as he goes.

Leonardo da Vinci

Among the great things which are to be found among us, the being of nothingness is the greatest.

Aristóteles

The end of labor is to gain leisure.

William Shakespeare

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt But, being season’d with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil?

Joseph Addison

The woman that deliberates is lost. 1

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Mark Twain

An open mind leaves a chance for someone to drop a worthwhile thought in it.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight ’twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honeydew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.

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Ezra Pound

For three years, out of key with his time, He strove to resuscitate the dead art Of poetry; to maintain “the sublime” In the old sense. Wrong from the start— No, hardly, but seeing he had been born In a half savage country, out of date.

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George Meredith

The song seraphically free Of taint of personality.

Leonardo da Vinci

Music may be called the sister of painting, for she is dependent upon hearing, the sense which comes second and her harmony is composed of the union of proportional parts sounded simultaneously, rising and falling in one or more harmonic rhythms.

Quentin Crisp

There are three reasons for becoming a writer: the first is that you need the money; the second, that you have something to say that you think the world should know; the third is that you can’t think of what to do with the long winter evenings.

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William Shakespeare

There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

Joseph Addison

Curse on his virtues! they’ve undone his country.

Mark Twain

There is no security in life, only opportunity.

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William Shakespeare

A deed without a name.

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Ezra Pound

His true Penelope was Flaubert, He fished by obstinate isles.

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George Meredith

With patient inattention hear him prate.

Leonardo da Vinci

There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, ’tis for some other. The spirit cannot die; and man, who shall know all and shall have wings.

Aristóteles

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

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William Shakespeare

The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest.

Joseph Addison

What pity is it That we can die but once to serve our country!

Mark Twain

A little lie can travel half way 'round the world while Truth is still lacing up her boots .

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Strongly it bears us along in swelling and limitless billows, Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the ocean.

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Ezra Pound

The age demanded an image Of its accelerated grimace, Something for the modern stage, Not, at any rate, an Attic grace.

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George Meredith

Full lasting is the song, though he, The singer, passes.

Leonardo da Vinci

The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it.

William Saroyan

You write because you want to be read.

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William Shakespeare

How all the other passions fleet to air, As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embrac’d despair, And shuddering fear, and green-ey’d jealousy.

Joseph Addison

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honor is a private station. 2

Mark Twain

A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn't.

William Shakespeare

Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth.

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Ezra Pound

Better mendacities Than the classics in paraphrase!

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George Meredith

Behold the life at ease; it drifts, The sharpened life commands its course.

Leonardo da Vinci

Whoever does not respect life, does not deserve it.

Aristóteles

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

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William Shakespeare

An unlesson’d girl, unschool’d, unpractic’d; Happy in this, she is not yet so old But she may learn.

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Joseph Addison

From hence, let fierce contending nations know What dire effects from civil discord flow.

Mark Twain

I cannot help but notice that there is no problem between us that cannot be solved by your departure.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In the hexameter rises the fountain’s silvery column; In the pentameter aye falling in melody back.

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Ezra Pound

Some quick to arm, some for adventure, some from fear of weakness, some from fear of censure, some for love of slaughter, in imagination, learning later… some in fear, learning love of slaughter; Died some, pro patria, walked eye-deep in hell believing in old men’s lies, the unbelieving came home, home to a lie.

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Emily Dickinson

Surgeons must be very careful When they take the knife! Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the Culprit— Life!

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Leonardo da Vinci

Not to anticipate is already to moan.

James Baldwin

When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know.

William Shakespeare

Here are a few of the unpleasant’st words That ever blotted paper.

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Edward Young

The love of praise, howe’er conceal’d by art, Reigns more or less, and glows in ev’ry heart.

Mark Twain

Behind every successful man, there is a woman - And behind every unsuccessful man, there are two.

William Shakespeare

But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate.

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