alas quotes

The stars are dead. The animals will not look: We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and History to the defeated May say Alas but cannot help nor pardon.

-W(ystan) H(ugh) Auden
  Spain.

Alas, alas, how easilya priest begets children and with what difficulty he provides for them; a priest I meanwho is extravagant enough to keep a conscience; a point wherein our profession commits (I must say) little excess.

- Rev Sydney Smith
  Letter to Lord Holland,14 Jul. InThe Letters of Sydney Smith edited by Nowell C Smith (1953), vol.1.