Month: March 2025

“Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows, which show like grief itself, but are not so; for sorrow’s eye, glazed with blinding tears, divides one thing entire to many objects.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 2.2

“Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 2.1

“Violent fires soon burn out themselves; small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; he tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes; with eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 2.1

“The tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony: where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 2.1

“What thy soul holds dear, imagine it to lie that way thou go’st, not whence thou com’st: suppose the singing-birds musicians, the grass whereon thou tread’st the presence strew’d, the flowers fair ladies, and they steps no more than a delightful measure or a dance; for gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite the man that mocks at it and sets it light.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 1.3

“The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation; that away, men are but painted loam or gilded clay.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 1.1

“Nothing retains the shape of what it was, and Nature, always making old things new, proves nothing dies within the universe, but takes another being in new forms. What is called birth is change from what we were, and death the shape of being left behind. Though all things melt or grow from here to there, yet the same balance of the world remains. Nothing, no, nothing keeps its outward show, for golden ages turn to years of iron; and Fortune changes many looks of places. I’ve seen land turned to miles of flood-tossed waters, or land rise up within a restless sea; shells have been found upon a sanded plain with never an ocean or a ship in sight. Someone has seen an anchor turned to rust, caught among brushes on a mountaintop. Stormed by great cataracts, a wide plateau turns to a valley and Spring floods have swept far hills into the chambers of the sea. And where a swamp once flowed beneath the willows, is now a strip of sand, and where a desert was, a little lake sways under growing seeds. Here Nature touches Earth with sudden fountains and over there she closes ancient springs; and when the underbody of Earth is shaken, the rivers gush, leap, rise, or fade away.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“Come, all of you who claim mortality should look on meats as poison to your bodies—unholy fuel to feed unholy fires. Here are the fruits of life—of field and orchard: apples that sway their branches to the ground, ripe, ripe are they, as grapes that crowd the vine, the rich soil yielding tender roots and grasses, which, placed above a fire, are yours to taste, nor is there lack of milk and flowing honey to make a feast that smells of flowering thyme. Yours are the gifts of earth that spends her riches without the taint of butchery and blood.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“Hot blood’s never cooled by reason.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“When I was thirteen, after my mother slit her wrists in the kitchen, I let my nails grow out and bit them into points. When I was in front of my father, I’d claw at my face. The doctor said I was seeking attention, which I think should have been a sign to give me more of it.” – Isabella Jetten, “Bloody Avenue”

“Some hoped that when their navy turned to mermaids the Rutuli would read that sign as a warning to stop the war—but still the war went on, gods ranged on either side to help their favorites, and both sides took their stand, brave as the gods. They even lost the reason why they fought, even forgot the virgin bride-to-be, her father’s name, and all his wealthy kingdom. They fought for nothing else but victory, against the thought of yielding to defeat.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“If we’re afraid, our fears will leave us open to more trouble.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“When Canens sang, cold rocks were moved to tears, or seemed less granite than a rock should be, the trees were swayed, rough beasts grew sentimental, and busy rivers winding miles away began to rest, to float, to fall asleep, and birds who heard her half-forgot to fly.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“Doing reporting costs money, but lies are free.” – Marcie Jones, “How Baltimore Locals Beat A Right-Wing Media Tycoon,” Wonkette, November 8, 2024

“In this strange anatomy we wear, the head has greater powers than the hand; the spirit, heart, and mind are over all.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“Combat crews [on Umnak Island, Alaska] set up their own tents and until 5 June [1942] cooked their own meals. Their bivouac area was a sea of mud; water covered the ground inside many of their tents and all crews were on alert from dawn to dark, which at that time of the year extended from 0400 to 2300. They went with little or no sleep for 48-hour periods, and they performed much of their own maintenance, pumping the gas from barrels and pouring oil from five-gallon cans.” – Kramer J. Rohfleisch, “Drawing the Battle Line in the Pacific” (from James Lea Cate and Wesley Frank Craven, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. One, Plans and Early Operations)

“Too much of glory carries ill fortune and a curse to many.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” – Isaac Asimov (quoted by Wendy Northcutt in The Darwin Awards: Next Evolution)

“There’s nothing more elusive than Time in flight, more swift in flight than he who steals our years and months, our days and hours.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory

“How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds make ill deeds done!” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 4.2

“It is the curse of kings to be attended by slaves that take their humours for a warrant to break within the bloody house of life; and, on the winking of authority, to understand a law.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 4.2

“Oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse,—as patches set upon a little breach discredit more in hiding of the fault than did the fault before it was so patch’d.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 4.2

“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 4.2

“When Fortune means to men most good, she looks upon them with a threatening eye.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 3.4

“Before the curing of a strong disease, even in the instant of repair and health, the fit is strongest; evils that take leave, on their departure most of all show evil.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 3.4

“O, that my tongue were in the thunder’s mouth! Then with a passion would I shake the world.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 3.4

“When law can do no right, let it be lawful that law bar no wrong.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 3.1

“Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, and say, there is no sin but to be rich; and being rich, my virtue then shall be, to say, there is no vice but beggary.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 2.1

“Who dares not stir by day must walk by night; and have is have, however men do catch.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 1.1

“Military necessity gave the greatest strategic importance to that section of the country [Australia] which had been least developed; the main centers of population, wealth, and transportation were in the southeast, whereas the north and northeast now held the position of key military importance. The difficulty of transporting goods overland from Brisbane to Darwin was as great as from Darwin to the Philippines, if not so dangerous. No railroad connected the two cities, which were 2,500 miles apart by the most expeditious land route. For over a quarter of this distance only a rough motor road cut through the central desert, and this road ended approximately 300 miles from Darwin to connect with a railway capable of carrying no more than 300 tons of freight per day. Repair facilities were inadequate for maintenance of either road or railway, and some of the rolling stock literally buckled under the weight of heavy American equipment.” – Richard L. Watson, “Pearl Harbor and Clark Field” (from James Lea Cate and Wesley Frank Craven, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. One, Plans and Early Operations)