Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[WT Sharpe]

BELLADONNA, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
..........— Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?), American editorialist, journalist, writer, and satirist. The Devil's Dictionary (1911, first published in book form as The Cynic's Wordbook, 1906).

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

BELLADONNA, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
..........— Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?), American editorialist, journalist, writer, and satirist. The Devil's Dictionary (1911, first published in book form as The Cynic's Wordbook, 1906).

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

BELLADONNA, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
..........— Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?), American editorialist, journalist, writer, and satirist. The Devil's Dictionary (1911, first published in book form as The Cynic's Wordbook, 1906).

Love it!


Stitchawl

[WT Sharpe]

.....The sun shineth upon the dunghill and is not corrupted, the diamond lieth in the fire and is not consumed, the crystal toucheth the toad and is not poisoned, the bird Trochilus' liveth by the mouth of the crocodile and is not spoiled,a perfect wit is never bewitched with lewdness neither enticed with lasciviousness.
..........— John Lyly (1553-1606), English writer. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1579).

[WT Sharpe]

.....The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
..........— Carl Sagan, scientist, author, professor of astronomy and space science at Cornell University. "In the Valley of the Shadow", Parade magazine (March 10, 1996).

[kennyc]

Excellent and Happy Thanksgiving to you Mr. Sharpe!

[WT Sharpe]

.....As a consequence of our silence on these matters, we live in a country in which a person cannot get elected president if he openly doubts the existence of heaven and hell. This is truly remarkable, given that there is no other body of "knowledge" that we require our political leaders to master. Even a hairstylist must pass a licensing exam before plying his trade in the United States, and yet those given the power to make war and national policy—those whose decisions will inevitably affect human life for generations—are not expected to know anything in particular before setting to work. They do not have to be political scientists, economists, or even lawyers; they need not have studied international relations, military history, resource management, civil engineering, or any other field of knowledge that might be brought to bear in the governance of a modern superpower; they need only be expert fund-raisers, comport themselves well on television, and be indulgent of certain myths. In our next presidential election, an actor who reads his Bible would almost certainly defeat a rocket scientist who does not. Could there be any clearer indication that we are allowing unreason and otherworldliness to govern our affairs?
..........— Sam Harris (1967 - ), American non-fiction author, CEO of Project Reason, and popularly known as one of the "Four Horsemen". The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (2004).

[Krystian Galaj]

"I knew—I knew what was coming, when we bid on the Byfleet’s keel—
They piddled and piffled with iron: I’d given my orders for steel!
Steel and the first expansions. It paid, I tell you, it paid,
When we came with our nine-knot freighters and collared the long-run trade!
And they asked me how I did it, and I gave ’em the Scripture text,
“You keep your light so shining a little in front o’ the next!”
They copied all they could follow, but they couldn’t copy my mind,
And I left ’em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

The "Mary Gloster" - Rudyard Kipling
(http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poet...y_gloster.html)

Today all the blueprint details would be guarded by army of lawyers, for at least 20 years.

[WT Sharpe]

GHOUL, n. A demon addicted to the reprehensible habit of devouring the dead. The existence of ghouls has been disputed by that class of controversialists who are more concerned to deprive the world of comforting beliefs than to give it anything good in their place. In 1640 Father Secchi saw one in a cemetery near Florence and frightened it away with the sign of the cross. He describes it as gifted with many heads and an uncommon allowance of limbs, and he saw it in more than one place at a time. The good man was coming away from dinner at the time and explains that if he had not been "heavy with eating" he would have seized the demon at all hazards. Atholston relates that a ghoul was caught by some sturdy peasants in a churchyard at Sudbury and ducked in a horsepond. (He appears to think that so distinguished a criminal should have been ducked in a tank of rosewater.) The water turned at once to blood "and so contynues unto ys daye." The pond has since been bled with a ditch. As late as the beginning of the fourteenth century a ghoul was cornered in the crypt of the cathedral at Amiens and the whole population surrounded the place. Twenty armed men with a priest at their head, bearing a crucifix, entered and captured the ghoul, which, thinking to escape by the stratagem, had transformed itself to the semblance of a well known citizen, but was nevertheless hanged, drawn and quartered in the midst of hideous popular orgies. The citizen whose shape the demon had assumed was so affected by the sinister occurrence that he never again showed himself in Amiens and his fate remains a mystery.
..........— Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?), American editorialist, journalist, writer, and satirist. The Devil's Dictionary (1911, first published in book form as The Cynic's Wordbook, 1906).

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

As late as the beginning of the fourteenth century a ghoul was cornered in the crypt of the cathedral at Amiens and the whole population surrounded the place. Twenty armed men with a priest at their head, bearing a crucifix, entered and captured the ghoul, which, thinking to escape by the stratagem, had transformed itself to the semblance of a well known citizen, but was nevertheless hanged, drawn and quartered in the midst of hideous popular orgies. The citizen whose shape the demon had assumed was so affected by the sinister occurrence that he never again showed himself in Amiens and his fate remains a mystery.

[WT Sharpe]

.....Hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones.
..........— Niccoló Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian statesman. The Prince (1513), Ch. xix.

[Stitchawl]

Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!
- Henry David Thoreau



Stitchawl

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!
- Henry David Thoreau



Stitchawl

Can you say "space junk"? It's probably good that Thoreau didn't live to see it. It would have broken his heart.

[WT Sharpe]

.....Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
..........— Thomas Paine (1737-1809), English political writer, patriot of the American Revolution, deist. The Rights of Man (1791).

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

.....Hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones.
..........— Niccoló Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian statesman. The Prince (1513), Ch. xix.

Sadly - so very true!