calamity quotes

My life was a strange one that summer, the last summer of its kind there was ever to be. I was riding high on sex and self-esteemit was my time, my belle e  poque but allthewhilewith a faintflickerofcalamity, likeflames around a photograph, something seen out of the corner of the eye.

- Alan Hollinghurst
  The Swimming Pool Library, ch.1.

To be forced by desire into any unwarrantable belief is a calamity.

- I(vor) A(rmstrong) Richards
  Principles of Literary Criticism.

   The death of Nelson was felt in England as something more than a public calamity; men started at the intelligence, and turned pale, as if they had heard of the loss of a dear friend.

- Robert Southey
  The Life of Nelson, ch.9.

   To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of so long life; For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death Murders the innocent sleep, Great nature's second course, And makes us rather sling the arrows of outrageous fortune Than fly to others that we know not of. There's the respect must give us pause: Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

- Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens Twain