Writ Quotes
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The moving finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all
thy piety nor wit Shall lure it back
to cancel half a line, Nor all thy tears
wash out a word of it.
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More Writ Quotes
This day, much against my will, I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and "Lord have mercy upon us" writ there; which was a sad sight to me, being the first of the kind that, to my remembrance, I ever saw. It put me into an ill conception of myself and my smell, so that I was forced to buy some roll-tobacco to smell to and chaw, which took away the apprehension.
Samuel Pepys— June 7, 1665
— Written during the Great Plague.
The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
omar khayyám— Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat, 71. Fitzgerald's translation. ("Thy piety" in first ed).
And thus I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
— William Shakespeare, in Richard III 1.3.336-38
Much malice mingled with a little wit Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ.
john dryden— 1687 The Hind and the Panther, pt.3, l.1-2.
Here lies one whose name was writ in water.
john keats— Epitaph for himself. Quoted in Richard Monckton Milnes Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats (1848), vol.2.
The social scientist is in a difficult, if not impossible position.On the one hand there is the temptation to see all of societyas one's autobiography writ large, surely not the path to general truth.On the other hand, there is the attempt to be general and objective by pretending that one knows nothing about the experience of being human, forcing the investigator to pretend that people usually know and tell the truth about important issues, when we all know from our own lives how impossible that is.
— 1995 'Sex, Lies, and Social Science', in the NewYork Review of Books, 20 Apr.
Might first made kings, and laws were then most sure When?they were writ in blood.
Christopher Marlowe— c.1589 The Jew of Malta (published1633),'Prologue'.
Accept a miracle instead of wit,—See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.
Edward Young— Lines written with the Diamond Pencil of Lord Chesterfield; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
'T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand,—Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man.
Edward Young— Line 644.
Trees continue to vegetate, and so do live on beasts and birds; he alone lives whose mind lives not in consequence of taking on a variety of forms. All holy writ is so much burden to him who has not acquired self-control, the body is so much burden to him who knows only the anatman (no-self.)
— Yogi Ramacharaka (1907/2007), The spirit of the Upanishads, Cosmo Classics, New York, p. 23
All your better deeds Shall be in water writ, but this in marble.
— Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding (c. 1609; printed 1629), Act V, scene 3.
Ere systemed suns were globed and lit The slaughters of the race were writ.
thomas hardy— Pt. II, sc. v, Semichorus I
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on."
julia ward howe— Published version, in the Atlantic Monthly (February 1862).
Here lies one whose name was writ in water.
john keats— Epitaph for himself (1821).
New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large.
john milton— On the new forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament (1645).
War is murder writ large.
carl sagan— Cosmos (1980, p. 326)
Words writ in waters.
George Chapman— George Chapman, Revenge for Honour, Act V, scene 2
It will make a greater heat in the city not to grant this (writ) than otherwise.
— Powis, J., R. v. Sir Gilbert Heathcot (1711), Fortesc. 293.
So that the jest is clearly to be seen, Not in the words but in the gap between; Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ, The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.
william cowper— William Cowper, Table Talk, line 540.
Some write, confin'd by physic; some, by debt; Some, for 'tis Sunday; some, because 'tis wet; Another writes because his father writ, And proves himself a bastard by his wit.
Edward Young— Edward Young, Epistles to Mr. Pope (1830), Epistle I, line 75.
My life has been the poem I would have writ, But I could not both live and utter it.
Henry David Thoreau— A Week on the Concord and Marrimack Rivers (1849) My Life Has Been a Poem I Would Have Writ.
I will be flesh and blood; For there was never yet philosopher That could endure the toothache patiently, However they have writ the style of gods And make a push at chance and sufferance.
— William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
Wikipedia underscores an evolutionary lesson: We've always gotten farther as a species collaborating than going it alone. [...] In the past, the groups that cooperated best lived longer and had more kids – and we inherited those tendencies. Groups would correct cheaters (people who didn't share info or goods) through social pressure. So Wikipedia is like humanity's social nature writ large electronically, complete with ongoing disputes and corrections.
— Mariette DiChristina, "All-Star Thinkers on Wikipedia's 10th Anniversary", The Atlantic, 13 January 2011
With the same bricks one may erect... a palace or a prison.... The same letters are used in Holy writ and heretical works.
isaac leib peretz— A Gilgul fun a Nign, 1901. Alle Verk, vi. 33.
It was not long before English Law took the one step needed to produce the modern scheme of legal remedies. And when it did, it used the writ of Trespass as the starting point.
— Chapter V, The Law Of Chattels, p. 67 (A Short History Of The English Law (First Edition) (1912))
It is assented and accorded, for the good Governance of the Commons, that no Man be put to answer without Presentment before Justices, or Matter of Record, or by due Process and writ original, according to the old Law of the Land: And if any Thing from henceforth be done to the contrary, it shall be void in the Law, and holden for Error
— Observance of due Process of Law (1368).
The sparrows chirped as if they still were proud Their race in Holy writ should mentioned be.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863-1874), The Poet's Tale, The Birds of Killingworth, Stanza 2.
writ in the climate of heaven, in the language spoken by angels.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Children of the Lord's Supper, line 262.
