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ancient quotes

  • It was a saying of an ancient philosopher, which I find some of our writers have ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhapsmight havetakenoccasionto repeat it, that a good face is a letter of recommendation.

    -Joseph Addison
      In The Spectator, no.221,13 Nov.

  • For by the will of the gods Fate hath held sway since ancient days.

    -Aeschylus
    Persae, l.102 (translated by H  Weir Smyth).

  • With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Job12:12.

  • I saw in the night visions and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Daniel 7:13.

  •    Si hay poes|a en nuestra Ame  rica, ella esta   en las cosas viejas: en Palenke y Uatla  n, en el indio legendario y el inca sensual y fino y en el gran Moctezuma de la silla de oro. Lo dema  s es tuyo, demo  crataWaltWhitman. If there is poetry in our America, it is in ancient items: in Palenke and Uatla  n, in the legendary Indian and in the sensuous and elegant Inca and the great Moctezuma. The rest is yours, democratic Walt Whitman.

    - Rube  n pseudonym of Fe  lixRube  nGarc|a Sarmiento Dar|  o
      Prosas profanas,'Palabras liminares'.

  • What Art was to the ancient world, Science is to the modern.

    - Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield Disraeli
      Coningsby, bk.4, ch.1.

  • A pesar de que la m|a es historia, no la empezare   por el arca de Noe   y la genealog|a de sus ascendientes como acostumbraban hacerlo los antiguos historiadores espan‹  oles deAme  rica, que deben ser nuestros prototipos. I'm going to tell a true story, but I won't start with Noah's Ark and the genealogy of his forefathers, as is usual among the ancient Spanish historians of America, who we consider our prototypes.

    - Esteban Echeverr|  a
      El matadero (The Slaughter-House,1959).

  • Porque alla   los espan‹  oles y las otras naciones†como tienen historias divinas y humanas, saben por ellas cua  ndo empezaron a reinar sus Reyes y los ajenos†todo esto y mucho ma  s saben por sus libros. Empero vosotros, que carece  is de ellos, Que   memoria tene  is de vuestras antiguallas?, Quie  n fue el primero de nuestros Incas? Over there Spaniards and other nations know from their divine and human history when their Kings and other peoples' Kings began their reigns† Their books teach them all of this, and much more. But you, who have no books, what memories do you have of your ancient past? Who was our first Inca?

    - Inca Garcilaso de laVega
      Comentarios reales (TheRoyal Commentaries of Peru,1688), bk.1, ch.15.

  • O worship the King, all glorious above; O gratefully sing his power and his love: Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, Pavilioned in splendour, and girded with praise.

    - Sir Robert Grant
      'O worship the King, all glorious above', collected in Sacred Poems (1839).

  • There is a place (If ancient and prophetic fame in heav'n Err not) another world, the happy seat Of some new race called Man.

    -John Milton
      Beelzebub. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.2, l.345^8.

  • Forgive and be happy. That is the ancient secret†the only wisdom ever to be attained.

    - Hugh Prather
      The Quiet Answer.

  • Je regrette l'Europe aux anciens parapets! I long for Europe of the ancient parapets! "

    - (Jean Nicolas) Arthur Rimbaud
    Poe  sies,'Le Bateau ivre'.

  • Ancient Person, for whom I All the flattering youth defy; Long be it ere thou grow old, Aching, shaking, crazy, cold; But still continue as thou art, Ancient person of my heart.

    -JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
    'A Song of aYoung Lady to HerAncient Lover', stanza1 (published1691).

  • Immortal, invisible,God only wise, In light inaccessible hid from our eyes, Most blesse'  d, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty, victorious,Thy great name we praise.

    -Walter Chalmers Smith
      'Immortal, Invisible', hymn.

  • Like a dull scholar, I behold, in love, An ancient aspect touching a new mind. It comes, it blooms, it bears its fruit and dies. This trivial trope reveals a way of truth. Our bloom isgone.We are the fruit thereof.

    -Wallace Stevens
      Harmonium,'Le Monocle de Mon Oncle', pt.8.

  •    Hobbits are an unobtrusive but veryancient people, more numerous formerly than theyare today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well- ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt† Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of 'the Big Folk', as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.

    -J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien
      The Fellowship of the Ring, prologue.

  • Never to have lived is best, ancient writers say; Never to have drawn the breath of life, never to have looked into the eye of day; The second best's a gay goodnight and quickly turn away.

    -W(illiam) B(utler) Yeats
      'From Oedipus at Colonnus', stanza 4. Collected in The Tower (1928).

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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