Fin Quotes
More Fin Quotes
A parler humainement, la mort a un bel endroit, qui est de mettre fin a' la vieillesse. To speak humanely, death has a useful function: it puts an end to old age.
— 1688 Les Caracte' res ou les m½urs de ce sie' cle,'De l'homme', no.45.
Il n'y a point de fin en nos inquisitions. Nostre fin est en l'autre monde. There is no end to our researches; our end is in the other world.
— 1588 Essays, bk.3, ch.13 (translated by Donald M Frame).
En ma fin git mon commencement. In my end is my beginning.
— Embroidered motto, quoted in Antonia Fraser Mary Queen of Scots (1969), ch.21,'My Norfolk'.
Si l'on recherche en quoi consiste pre cise ment le plus grand bien de tous, qui doit e" tre le fin de tout syste' me de le gislation, on trouvera qu'il se re duit a' ces deux objets principaux, la liberte et l'e galite . If we enquire wherein lies precisely the greatest good of all, which ought to be the goal of every system of law, we shall find that it comes down to two main objects, freedom and equality.
— 1762 Du contrat social (The Social Contract), bk.2, ch.11 (translated by M Cranston).
Better a dish of husks to the accompaniment of a muted lute than to be satiated with stewed shark's fin and rich spiced wine of which the cost is frequently mentioned by the provider.
ernest bramah— "The Story of the Poet Lao Ping, Chun Shin's Daughter Fa, and the Fighting Crickets"
Organic life beneath the shoreless wavesWas born and nurs'd in ocean's pearly caves;First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;These, as successive generations bloom,New powers acquire and larger limbs assume;Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.
erasmus darwin— The Temple of Nature (1802).
(Che) bel fin fa chi ben amando muore.
bernardo dovizi— Act I, scene II. — (Lidio).
— Translation: Fair is his end who loving well doth die.
— Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 254.
È poco maleQuel fallo poi che al fin in ben riesse.
marco guazzo— Act V (Filarco).
— Translation: But little harmThat error does that turns to good at last.
— Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 295.
Un contadino che mi dà il suo pezzo di pecorino mi fa un regalo più grande di Giulio Làscari quando m’invita a pranzo. Il guaio è che il pecorino mi dà la nausea; e così non resta che la gratitudine che non si vede e il naso arricciato dal disgusto che si vede fin troppo.
giuseppe tomasi di lampedusa— When a peasant gives me his bit of cheese he's making me a bigger present than the Prince of Làscari when he invites me to dinner. That's obvious. The difficulty is that the cheese is nauseating. So all that remains is the heart's gratitude which can't be seen and the nose wrinkled in disgust which can be seen only too well.
— Page 144
Ma fin est mon commencementEt mon commencement ma fin.
guillaume de machaut— My end is my beginning, and my beginning my end.
— "Ma fin est mon commencement", line 1; translation from Donald N. Ferguson A History of Musical Thought (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, [1935] 1948) p. 94.
Par une de ces journées sombres qui attristent la fin de l'année, et que rend encore plus mélancoliques le souffle glacé du vent du Nord, écoutez, en lisant Ossian, la fantastique harmonie d'une harpe éolienne balancée au sommet d'un arbre dépouillé de verdure, et vous pourrez éprouver un sentiment profond de tristesse, un désir vague et infini d'une autre existence, un dégoût immense de celle-ci.
james macpherson— Some gloomy autumn day, when the dreary north wind is howling, read Ossian to the accompaniment of the weird moans of an Æolian harp hung in the leafless branches of a tree, and you will experience a feeling of intense sadness, an infinite yearning for another state of existence, an intense disgust with the present.
— Hector Berlioz Mémoires, ch. 39 [1]; Eleanor Holmes, Rachel Holmes and Ernest Newman (trans.) Memoirs of Hector Berlioz from 1803 to 1865 (New York: Dover, 1966) pp. 156-7.
I am Lord Nelson. See, here's my fin.
horatio nelson— During the battle of Copenhagen, the Danish 74-gun Syaelland commanded by a Danish Commodore who happened to be an old friend of Nelson's from the West Indies was captured, but refused to surrender to anyone other than Lord Nelson. This was Nelson's famous remark after boarding the ship. Oman, Carola (1946). Nelson first published by London: Greenhill Books. 1996, pg 447.
A la fin tu es las de ce monde ancien Bergère ô tour Eiffel le troupeau des ponts bêle ce matin Tu en as assez de vivre dans l'antiquité grecque et romaine
guillaume apollinaire— At last you're tired of this elderly world
Shepherdess O Eiffel Tower this morning the bridges are bleating
You're fed up living with antiquity"Zone", line 1; translation from Donald Revell (trans.) Alcools (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1995) p. 3.
¿Qué os espanta, si fue mi maestro un sueño, y estoy temiendo, en mis ansias, que he de despertar y hallarme otra vez en mi cerrada prisión? Y cuando no sea, el soñarlo sólo basta; pues así llegué a saber que toda la dicha humana, en fin, pasa como sueño.
pedro calderón de la barca— What surprises you, if a dream taught me this wisdom, and if I still fear I may wake up and find myself once more confined in prison? And even if this should not happen, merely to dream it is enough. For this I have come to know, that all human happiness finally ceases, like a dream.Segismundo, Act III, l. 1114
Se tout le ciel estoit de feuilles d'or, Et li airs fust estellés d'argent fin, Et tous les vens fussent pleins de tresor, Et les gouttes fussent toutes florin D'eaue de mer, et pleust soir et matin Richesses, biens, honeurs, joiaux, argent, Tant que rempli en fust toute la gent, La terre aussi en fust mouillee toute, Et fusse nu, – de tel pluie et tel vent Ja sur mon cors n'en cherroit une goutte.
Eustache Deschamps— If all the sky was made of gold leaf, and the air was starred with fine silver, and treasure borne on all the winds, and every drop of sea-water was a florin, and it rained down, morning and evening, riches, goods, honours, jewels, money, till all the people were filled with it, and I stood there naked in such rain and wind, never a drop of it would fall on me."Se tout le ciel estoit de feuilles d'or", line 1; text and translation from Brian Woledge (ed.) The Penguin Book of French Verse, 1: To the Fifteenth Century (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1961] 1968) p. 236.
Pero ya duerme sin fin. Ya los musgos y la hierba abren con dedos seguros la flor de su calavera. Y su sangre ya viene cantando: cantando por marismas y praderas, resbalando por cuernos ateridos, vacilando sin alma por la niebla, tropezando con miles de pezuñas como una larga, oscura, triste lengua, para formar un charco de agonía junto al Guadalquivir de las estrellas. ¡Oh blanco muro de España! ¡Oh negro toro de pena! ¡Oh sangre dura de Ignacio! ¡Oh ruiseñor de sus venas!
federico garcía lorca— But now he sleeps endlessly.
Now the moss and the grass
open with sure fingers
the flower of his skull.
And now his blood comes out singing;
singing along marshes and meadows,
slides on frozen horns,
faltering souls in the mist
stumbling over a thousand hoofs
like a long, dark, sad tongue,
to form a pool of agony
close to the starry Guadalquivir.
Oh, white wall of Spain!
Oh, black bull of sorrow!
Oh, hard blood of Ignacio!
Oh, nightingale of his veins!Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias (1935) [6]
He has only just learned to tell dreams from waking; only just realized that he is he; only just whittled with his hand né fin a flint, a rocket ship; easily drowned in the ocean's teaspoon, not even funny enough to tickle the void: sees only with his eyes; hears only with his ears; his speech's personal best is the conditional; he uses his reason to pick holes in reason. In short, he's next to to one, but his head's full of freedom, omniscience and the Being beyond his foolish meat did you ever!
wisława szymborska— "No End of Fun"
Darius was clearly of the opinion That the air is also man’s dominion, And that, with paddle or fin or pinion, We soon or late Shall navigate The azure, as now we sail the sea.
john townsend trowbridge— Darius Green and his Flying-Machine.
When we took the fin of Tiktaalik apart, we found something truly remarkable: all the joint surfaces were extremely well preserved. Tiktaalik has a shoulder, elbow and wrist composed of the same bones as an upper arm, forearm and wrist in a human.
— Neil Shubin - Your Inner Fish (2008)
Darius was clearly of the opinion That the air is also man's dominion And that with paddle or fin or pinion, We soon or late shall navigate The azure as now we sail the sea.
john townsend trowbridge— John Townsend Trowbridge, Darius Green and his Flying Machine.
Better a dish of husks to the accompaniment of a muted lute than to be satiated with stewed shark's fin and rich spiced wine of which the cost is frequently mentioned by the provider.
— "The Story of the Poet Lao Ping, Chun Shin's Daughter Fa, and the Fighting Crickets"
È poco male Quel fallo poi che al fin in ben riesse.
— Act V (Filarco).
— Translation: But little harm
That error does that turns to good at last.
— Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 295.
Darius was clearly of the opinion That the air is also man’s dominion, And that, with paddle or fin or pinion, We soon or late Shall navigate The azure, as now we sail the sea.
john townsend trowbridge— John Townsend Trowbridge, Darius Green and his Flying-Machine.
Mas greu veiretz fin' amansases paor e ses doptansa,c'ades tem om vas so c'ama, falhir,per qu'eu no·m aus de parlar enardir.
bernart de ventadorn— But true love comes, not so lightlyWithout fear and with no doubting,We always fear that what we love may fail,So I don't dare to stir myself to speak.
— "Ab joi mou lo vers e·l comens", line 13; translation by James H. Donalson. [1]
Chantars no pot gaire valer,Si d'ins dal cor no mou lo chans!Ni chans no pot dal cor mover,Si no i es fin' amors coraus.
bernart de ventadorn— Singing cannot much avail, if from within the heart comes not the song; nor can the song come from the heart, unless there be there noble love, heartfelt.
— "Chantars no pot gaire valer", line 1; translation from Alan R. Press Anthology of Troubadour Lyric Poetry (1971) p. 67.
Mas greu veiretz fin' amansa ses paor e ses doptansa, c'ades tem om vas so c'ama, falhir, per qu'eu no·m aus de parlar enardir.
— But true love comes, not so lightly
Without fear and with no doubting,
We always fear that what we love may fail,
So I don't dare to stir myself to speak.
— "Ab joi mou lo vers e·l comens", line 13; translation by James H. Donalson. [1]
We in Ulster will tolerate no Sinn Féin. But we tell you this—that if, having offered you our help, you are yourselves unable to protect us from the machinations of Sinn Féin, and you won't take our help; well then, we tell you that we will take the matter into our own hands. We will reorganise.
— Speech in Belfast, 12 July 1920.
Our message to the perverts who voted for them [Sinn Féin] is that they will not get anything through this council.
sammy wilson— Andersonstown News (March 5, 1988)
