mortar quotes

A stately palace built of square'  d brick, Which cunningly was without mortar laid, Whose walls were high, but nothing strong, nor thick, And golden foil all over them displayed, That purest sky with brightness they dismayed.

- Edmund Spenser
  Of the palace of pride. The Faerie Queen, bk.1, canto 4, stanza 4.

The Social Contract is nothing more or less than a vast conspiracy of human beings to lie to and humbug themselves and one another for the general Good. Lies are the mortar that bind the savage individual man into the social masonry.

- H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells
  Love and Mrs Lewisham, ch.23.