Category: Lit & Crit

“Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, too rude, too boisterous; and it pricks like thorn.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 1.4

“One fire burn’s out another’s burning, one pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish, turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; one desperate grief cures with another’s languish: take thou some new infection to thy eye, and the rank poison of the old will die.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 1.2

“Love is a smoke rais’d with the fume of sighs; being purg’d, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; being vex’d, a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears: what is it else? a madness most discreet, a choking gall, and a preserving sweet.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 1.1

“Sad hours seem long.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 1.1

“Most are busied when they’re most alone.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 1.1

“The bombers, both of the attacking and the diversionary force, came through with no losses and with a minimum of damage. Enemy opposition had been slight. Antiaircraft fire was observed at two places, but only two planes sustained damage, and that slight. Fighter opposition was negligible. Three Me-109’s attacked the formation, and several others put in a silent appearance. Of those attacking, one was claimed as damaged by fire from the B-17’s. The bomber crews received no injury at all from enemy action, the only casualties having occurred when, on the way home, one plane hit a pigeon and the shattered glass from the nose of the bomber slightly injured the bombardier and navigator.” – Arthur B. Ferguson, “Rouen-Sotteville No. 1, 17 August 1942” (from James Lea Cate and Wesley Frank Craven, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. One, Plans and Early Operations)

“The advisability of getting its crews into the United Kingdom outweighed the desirability of more thorough training before departure. But this meant that crews arrived with little or no experience in high-altitude flying. Pilots and co-pilots had received little instruction in flying formations at any altitude, to say nothing of maintaining tight formations at the extreme altitudes planned for day bomber missions. Many of the radio operators could neither send nor receive the Morse code. Worse yet, the gunners proved to be almost completely unfamiliar with their equipment. Many of them had had little or no opportunity to shoot at aerial targets, and several had never operated a turret in the air. This deficiency was especially disturbing to the Eighth Air Force experts because they felt sure that the ability of the heavy bombers to destroy enemy targets by daylight without prohibitive loss would depend in large part on their ability to defend themselves against enemy fighters.” – Arthur B. Ferguson, “Rouen-Sotteville No. 1, 17 August 1942” (from James Lea Cate and Wesley Frank Craven, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. One, Plans and Early Operations)

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 5.5

“They well deserve to have that know the strong’st and surest way to get.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 3.3

“Shall we play the wantons with our woes, and make some pretty match with shedding tears?” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 3.3

“Men judge by the complexion of the sky the state and inclination of the day.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 3.2

“To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 3.2

“Wise men ne’er sit and wail their woes, but presently prevent the ways to wail.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 3.2

“Let us sit upon the ground, and tell sad stories of the death of kings:—how some have been depos’d; some slain in war; some haunted by the ghosts they have depos’d; some poison’d by their wives; some sleeping kill’d; all murder’d:—for within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps Death his court.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 3.2

“That is not forgot which ne’er I did remember.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 2.3

“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

“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)