“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer’s lease hath all too short a date: sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimm’d; and every fair from fair sometime declines, by chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d; but thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, when in eternal lines to time thou growest; so long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” – William Shakespeare, “Sonnet XVIII”
Category: Lit & Crit
“If I could write the beauty of your eyes, and in fresh numbers number all your graces, the age to come would say, this poet lies, such heavenly touches ne’er touch’d earthly faces. So should my papers, yellow’d with their age, be scorn’d, like old men of less truth than tongue.” – William Shakespeare, “Sonnet XVII”
“ABDA Command was conceived as a means for the Allies to defend Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. As U.S. and British leaders convened in Washington in late December 1941 and grappled with the unexpected collapsing situation in the Far East, they pushed for a unified command structure. In a surprise to the British, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General George C. Marshall, supported even more surprisingly by Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, pushed to have a British army general put in charge of ABDA, while British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pushed to have an American admiral put in charge. Both sides apparently saw the situation as lost, leading to the gracious offers to have the other put in charge.” – Samuel J. Cox, The Java Sea Campaign
“Every thing that grows holds in perfection but a little moment.” – William Shakespeare, “Sonnet XV”
“Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.” – William Shakespeare, “Sonnet VIII”
“The venom clamours of a jealous woman poison more deadly that a mad dog’s tooth.” – William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors
“No evil lost is wail’d when it is gone.” – William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors
“Headstrong liberty is lash’d with woe.” – William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors
“A man is master of his liberty; time is their master; and, when they see time, they’ll go or come.” – William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors
“Lovers’ hours are long, though seeming short: if pleas’d themselves, others, they think, delight in such like circumstance, with such like sport: their copious stories, oftentimes begun, end without audience, and are never done.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Love makes young men thrall, and old men dote.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets, but gold that’s put to use more gold begets.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Rich preys make true men thieves.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Where Love reigns, disturbing Jealousy doth call himself Affection’s sentinel; gives false alarms, suggesteth mutiny, and in a peaceful hour doth cry, ‘kill, kill;” distempering gentle Love in his desire.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Things out of hope are compass’d oft with venturing, chiefly in love, whose leave exceeds commission: affection faints not like a pale-fac’d coward.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“O learn to love; the lesson is but plain, and, once made perfect, never lost again.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Affection is a coal that must be cool’d; else, suffer’d, it will set the heart on fire: the sea hath bounds, but deep desire hath none.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Upon the earth’s increase why shouldst thou feed, unless the earth with thy increase be fed? By law of Nature thou are bound to breed, that thine may live, when thou thyself art dead; and so in spite of death thou dost survive, in that thy likeness still is left alive.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Torches are made to light, jewels to wear, dainties to taste, fresh beauty for the use, herbs for their smell, and sappy plants to bear; things growing to themselves are growth’s abuse.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“Make use of time, beauty within itself should not be wasted: fair flowers that are not gather’d in their prime rot and consume themselves in little time.” – William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
“No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written. He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.” – T. S. Eliot, “The Art of Poetry,” Paris Review
“After a period of getting away from the traditional forms, comes a period of curiosity in making new experiments with traditional forms. This can produce very good work if what has happened in between has made a difference: when it’s not merely going back, but taking up an old form, which has been out of use for a time, and making something new with it.” – T. S. Eliot, “The Art of Poetry,” Paris Review
“It’s not wise to violate rules until you know how to observe them.” – T. S. Eliot, “The Art of Poetry,” Paris Review
“Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken; and he wants wit that wants resolved will to learn his wit to exchange the bad for better.” – William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona 2.6
“Upon a homely object love can wink.” – William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1.4
“Maids, in modesty, say No to that which they would have the profferer construe Ay.” – William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1.2 (emphasis in original)
“Fire that is closest kept burns most of all.” – William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1.2
“The understanding of art depends finally upon one’s willingness to extend one’s humanity and one’s knowledge of human life.” – Ralph Ellison, “The Art of Fiction,” Paris Review
“As the most forward bud is eaten by the canker ere it blow, even so by love the young and tender wit is turn’d to folly; blasting in the bud, losing his verdure even in the prime, and all the fair effects of future hopes.” – William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1.1
“To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans; coy looks with heart-sore sighs; one fading moment’s mirth with twenty watchful, tedious nights: if haply won, perhaps a hapless gain; if lost, why then a grievous labour won; however, but a folly bought with wit, or else a wit by folly vanquished.” – William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1.1