fright quotes

The only good government†is a bad one in a hell of a fright.

- (Arthur) Joyce Lunel Cary
  The Horse's Mouth, ch.32.

My thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires, My manhood, long misled by wandering fires, Followed false lights; and when their glimpse was gone My pride struck out new sparkles of her own† Good life be now my task: my doubts are done; (What more could fright my faith thanThree in One?)

-John Dryden
  The Hind and the Panther, pt.1, l.71^6.

The suaveness isn't born of confidence; it's born of fright.

-Wilfred Hyde-White
Quoted in his obituary, in the San Francisco Chronicle,7 May1991.

It is not tricks of sense But the time's fright within me which distracts Least fancies into violence

- Richard Wilbur
  Walking to Sleep,'On the MarginalWay'.