poison quotes

The strongest poison ever known Came from Ceasar's laurel crown.

-William Blake
c.1803  Auguries of Innocence, l.97^8.

Theyare as venomous as the poison of a serpent: even like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears; Which refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer: charm he never so wisely.

-Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 58:4^5.

Unlawful pleasure, trenching on another's rights, is delusive and envenomed pleasureits hollowness disappoints at the time, its poison cruelly tortures afterwards, its effects deprave forever.

- Charlotte Bronte« 
  The Professor, ch.20.

'Did they dare, did they dare, to slay Owen Roe O'Neil?' 'Yes, theyslew with poisonhimthey feared tomeet with steel.' 'May God wither up their hearts! May their blood cease to flow! May they walk in living death, who poisoned Owen Roe!'

-Thomas Osborne Davis
  'Lament for the Death of Owen Roe O'Neil'.

Corruption is more than a poison afflicting Chinese business life. It is Chinese business life.

-The Economist
  The Economist, 29  Jan.

Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. It is not the effort or the failure tires. The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.

- Sir William Empson
  'Missing Dates'.

While Socrates empties the cup of poison with unshaken soul,Christ exclaims,'If it is possible, let this cup pass from me'.Christ in this respect is the self- confession of human sensibility.

- Ludwig Feuerbach
Das Wesen des Christentums (translated by MaryAnn Evans (George Eliot) as The Essence of Christianity,1854).

Why should I let the toad work Squat on my life? Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork And drive the brute off? Six days of the week it soils With its sickening poison Just for paying a few bills! That's out of proportion.

- Philip Arthur Larkin
  'Toads'.

We hardly know any instance of the strength and weakness of humannaturesostriking, and sogrotesque, as the character of this haughty, vigilant, resolute, sagacious blue-stockinghalf Mithridates and half Trissotin, bearing up against a world in arms, with an ounce of poison inone pocket, and a quire of bad verses in the other.

-1st Baron
  Of Frederick the Great. Historical Essays.'Frederic the Great', in the Edinburgh Magazine,  Apr.

The pellet with the poison's in the chalice from the palace The flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true.

- Norman and Frank, Melvin Panama
  Lines delivered by Danny Kaye in The CourtJester.

Christ for myguardianship today: against poison, against burning, against drowning, against wounding, that there may come to me a multitude of rewards; Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ over me, Christ to right of me, Christ to left of me, Christ in lying down, Christ in sitting, Christ in rising up, Christ in the heart of every person who may thinkof me, Christ in the mouth of every person who may speak of me, Christ in every eye, which may look on me! Christ in every ear, which may hear me!

-St Patrick   5c
St Patrick's Breastplate, traditionally attributed to the saint.

   Our Adonais has drunk poisonoh! What deaf and viperous murderer could crown Life's early cup with such a draught of woe?

- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Adonais, stanza 36.

Science isthegreat antidoteto the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

- Adam Smith
  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of theWealth of Nations, bk.5, ch.1, pt.3, article 3.

Instead of dirt and poison we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honeyand wax; thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.

-Jonathan Swift
  The Battle of the Books.

It don't make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person's conscience ain't got no sense, and just goes for him anyway.If I had a yaller dog that didn't know nomorethana person's conscience does Iwould poison him. It takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides, and yet ain't no good, nohow. Tom Sawyer he says the same.

- Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens Twain
  TheAdventures of Huckleberry Finn, ch.33.