who and where are these from?
Susan M. Stiefel
I hope I've come to the right newsgroup. There are a few quotes I
have heard recently and I know that where I heard them they were only
quoting someone else, but I can't seem to track them down (and believe
me, I've tried search engines and reference books, etc.). If anyone can
tell me where any of these are from, I'd appreciate it:
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
"From hell's heart I stab at thee." (Man, this one should be easy,
but it's not in any of my reference books, and I can't think where it's
from!)
I'm not sure exactly how this one goes, but it's something like:
"Dreams are the answers to questions we don't yet know how to ask."
Anyone know any of these?
Thanks!
SUe
"If the Apocalypse comes, beep me." -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
--
*********************************************
SUe
su...@pobox.com
http://pobox.com/~sue.s
*********************************************
Jeff Wischkaemper
Susan M. Stiefel wrote:
> "From hell's heart I stab at thee." (Man, this one should be easy,
> but it's not in any of my reference books, and I can't think where it's
> from!)
Herman Melville, Moby Dick. This is Captain Ahab's final quotation in full:
"I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! Let me hear thy
hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel;
and
only god-bullied hull; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole-pointed
prow, --death-glorious ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut
off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely
death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my
topmost
grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold
billows of my whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my
death!
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last
I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I
spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common
pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still
chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the
spear!"
After this, the rope from Ahab's harpoon loops itself around the Captain
himself, and he is forever dragged behind the object and obsession of his
hate, his quest having consumed him to the end.
Jeff
Susan M. Stiefel
sounded...right. I was going to look and I can't locate my copy...it's
probably just hiding under a stack or behind something on a shelf. The
only reason I wasn't certain was that I would expect that to be in any
book of quotations, wouldn't you?
Thanks! One down, two to go!
SUe
--
LTD
<su...@pobox.com> wrote:
>Hi all,
> I hope I've come to the right newsgroup. There are a few quotes I
>have heard recently and I know that where I heard them they were only
>quoting someone else, but I can't seem to track them down (and believe
>me, I've tried search engines and reference books, etc.). If anyone can
>tell me where any of these are from, I'd appreciate it:
> "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
If a man fool me once, shame on him. If he fool me
twice, shame on me.
--Indian Proverb
Lou
---
"By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Kurt Foster
. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
.
The script writers for the original "Star Trek" series must have known,
because Scotty said it in an episode once, when he was in command. Sounds
like an "old saying".
. "From hell's heart I stab at thee." (Man, this one should be easy,
. but it's not in any of my reference books, and I can't think where it's
. from!)
.
From Captain Ahab's last words in "Moby Dick", by Herman Melville. The
script writers for the second "Star Trek" movie "The Wrath of Kahn" knew
that one too, and had Kahn quote Ahab's last words for his own.
. I'm not sure exactly how this one goes, but it's something like:
. "Dreams are the answers to questions we don't yet know how to ask."
.
I think it was Bobby Kennedy who said something somewhat similar when he
was running for President, so one of his speechwriters probably lifted it
and rephrased it. The rendition in the speech went like, "Some people see
things that are and ask `why?' I see things that never were, and ask, `why
not?'
Christopher Brown
>.
> I think it was Bobby Kennedy who said something somewhat similar when he
>was running for President, so one of his speechwriters probably lifted it
>and rephrased it. The rendition in the speech went like, "Some people see
>things that are and ask `why?' I see things that never were, and ask, `why
>not?'
Well, if they rephrased it, then they rephrased it right into Shaw.
CDB
Daniel P. B. Smith
>
>> "From hell's heart I stab at thee." (Man, this one should be easy,
>
>Herman Melville, Moby Dick. [from Captain Ahab's last words].
Martin Gardner's 219-page book, "The Annotated 'Casey at the Bat,'"
University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-28263-5, is worth the price of
admission for the poem, by none other than Ray Bradbury, entitled
"Ahab at the Helm."
It begins:
It looked extremely rocky for the Melville nine that day,
The score stood at two lowerings, with one lowering yet to play,
And when Fedallah died and rose, and others did the same,
A pallor wreathed the features of the patron of this Game.
A straggling few downed-oars to go, leaving behind the rest,
WIth that hope which springs eternal from the blind dark human brest.
They prayed that Captain Ahab's rage would thrust, strike, overwhelm!
They'd wager "Death to Moby!" with old Ahab at the helm.
...
And now the white-fleshed monster came a-hurtling through the air,
While Ahab stood despising it in haughty grandeur there!
Close by the sturdy harpooner the Whale unheeded sped--
"That ain't my style," said Ahab. "Strike! Strike!" good Starbuck said.
--
Daniel P. B. Smith
dpbs...@world.std.com
Serenleono
>. "From hell's heart I stab at thee."
Kurt Foster <kfo...@shell.rmi.net> scripsit:
>From Captain Ahab's last words in "Moby Dick", by Herman Melville.
Yes, indeed. Here are all the quotes and matches that I know.
I'll chase him round the moons of Nibia,
around the Antares maelstrom, and around
Perdition's flames before I give him up!
-- Khan Noonian Singh,
STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN.
Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good
Hope, and round the Horn, and round the
Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's
flames before I give him up. And this is
what ye have shipped for, men! to chase
that white whale on both sides of land, and
over all sides of the earth, till he spouts
black blood and rolls fin out.
-- Captain Ahab, MOBY-DICK,
or THE WHITE WHALE, ch. XXXVI.
He tasks me! He tasks me! And I shall
have him!
-- Khan (speaking of Admiral Kirk)
He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him
outrageous strength, with an inscrutable
malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing
is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale
agent, or be the white whale principle, I will
wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me
of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it
insulted me. For could the sun do that, then
could I do the other; since there is ever a
sort of fair plan herein, jealousy presiding
over all creations.
-- Captain Ahab, ch. XXXVI
To the last I grapple with thee. From hell's
heart I stab at thee. For hate's sake I spit
my last breath at thee.
-- Khan's dying words.
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but
unconquering whale; to the last I grapple
with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee;
for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.
Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common
pool! and since neither can be mine, let me
then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee,
though tied to thee, thou damned whale!
Thus, I give up the spear!
-- Ahab's dying words,
chapter CXXXV.
Seren
P.S. And my favourite, though non-Trek-related "Moby" quote:
"Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act's immutably decreed.
'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean
rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant; I act under orders."
-- Captain Ahab, chapter CXXXIV
Shivers me timbers just to type it. Melville's pen must have been
aflame to produce such a novel. Only Shakespeare and Milton before
him had such a gift for describing the darker human passions.
Serenleono
>Martin Gardner's 219-page book, "The Annotated 'Casey at the Bat,'"
>University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-28263-5, is worth the price of
>admission for the poem, by none other than Ray Bradbury, entitled
>"Ahab at the Helm."
<checkle> Oh, my. As if I didn't have too many books and too few
shelves on which to place them already . . . and now you give me
another that I'll simply *have* to have. <g> Thanks for the pointer,
Daniel. As co-screenwriter for the Gregory Peck (1956) version of
MOBY DICK (along with director John Huston and Norman Corwin, as I
recall), Bradbury is a good pick to tackle that melding of
larger-than-life figures.
Seren
Only an unlit candle lasts forever.
Jeff Wischkaemper
form:
"All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all
truth
with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the
subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly
personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the
whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole
race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst
his hot heart's shell upon it."
picard only quotes the last sentence, but a beautiful passage none the less.
(personally, i like hugo more than melville though)
Serenleono
>don't forget picard's (mis)quote in First Contact
I was limiting my scope merely to STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN, but
certainly there are myriads of additional quotes, misquotes, and
literary allusions in other STAR TREK movies and the various
television incarnations.
One example, from the episode "Space Seed" (the original Khan
episode):
KHAN
Have you ever read Milton, Captain?
KIRK
Yes, I understand.
(later, in the same scene)
SCOTTY
It's a shame for a good Scotsman to admit
it, but I'm not up on Milton.
KIRK
The statement Lucifer made when he fell
into the Pit: "It is better to rule in hell than
serve in heaven."
The actual quote from PARADISE LOST, John Milton's magnificent
17th-century epopee of angelic rebellion and the Fall of Man, one of
the greatest works of all time and high among the enduring passions of
my life, reads (expanded here for context):
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less than hee
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.
-- Satan to Beëlzebub,
PL, Book I, 254 - 63
Graham Weeks
> The actual quote from PARADISE LOST, John Milton's magnificent
> 17th-century epopee of angelic rebellion and the Fall of Man, one of
> the greatest works of all time and high among the enduring passions of
> my life, reads (expanded here for context):
>
> The mind is its own place, and in itself
> Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
> What matter where, if I be still the same,
> And what I should be, all but less than hee
> Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
> We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
> Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
> Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
> To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
> Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.
> -- Satan to Beëlzebub,
> PL, Book I, 254 - 63
>
> Seren
> Only an unlit candle lasts forever.
So how about some favourite quotes from Paradise Lost?
Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring. John Milton Paradise Lost Line 750
--
Graham J Weeks
http://www.weeks-g.dircon.co.uk/
http://www.grace.org.uk/churches/ealing.html
\o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/
Ps. 149:3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him
with tambourine and harp.
\o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/
Leslie Paul Davies
GL
--
Paul W2SYF/4 Ft Lauderdale
"Heisenberg may have slept here... "
Leslie Paul Davies
lpda...@bc.seflin.org
Serenleono
>So how about some favourite quotes from Paradise Lost?
Oh! he said the magic words. <g> I'll share some of my personal
favourites. I'm sure I'll neglect some, but there are always
follow-ups.
(In the following quotes, the 1674 second edition is used, though many
spellings have been modernized. I'd be glad to supply the same quotes
in their original forms to anyone who asks.)
The subject of PARADISE LOST:
Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe.
-- John Milton, PL, Book I, opening lines.
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme.
-- Book I, 16
Milton's invocation:
Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure.
-- Book I, 17 - 18
What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.
-- Book I, 22 - 26
Hell -- darkness visible:
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all.
-- Book I, 61 - 67
O how unlike the place from whence they fell!
-- Book I, 75
(Even Milton used the redundant "from whence" when it suited his
poetic needs. "Whence", of course, already means "from where".)
This dark opprobrious Den of shame,
The Prison of his [God's] Tyranny.
-- (Moloch), Book II, 58 - 59
He call'd so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded.
-- Book I, 314 - 15
The universal Host upsent
A shout that tore Hell's Concave, and beyond
Frighted the Reign of Chaos and old Night.
-- Book I, 541 - 43
Satan -- his appearance and unconquerable Will:
He above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a Tow'r.
-- Book I, 589 - 91
His face
Deep scars of Thunder had intrencht, and care
Sat on his faded cheek, but under Brows
Of dauntless courage, and considerate Pride
Waiting revenge: cruel his eye, but cast
Signs of remorse and passion to behold
The fellows of his crime.
-- Book I, 600 - 06
Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce
Angels.
-- (Adam) Book IX, 307 - 08
What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That Glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee.
-- Book I, 105 - 12
To be weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do aught good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight,
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist.
-- Book I, 157 - 62
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
-- Book I, 254 - 55
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.
-- Book I, 262 - 63
He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim.
-- Book I, 663 - 65
Satan -- his inward thoughts:
Horror and doubt distract
His troubl'd thoughts, and from the bottom stir
The Hell within him, for within him Hell
He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell
One step no more than from himself can fly
By change of place.
-- Book IV, 18 - 23
Me miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep
Still threat'ning to devour me opens wide,
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav'n.
-- Book IV, 73 - 78
The lower still I fall, only Supreme
In misery; such joy Ambition finds.
-- Book IV, 91 - 92
So farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear,
Farewell Remorse: all Good to me is lost;
Evil be thou my Good.
-- Book IV, 108 - 10
The strife which thou call'st evil, but wee style
The strife of Glory.
-- Book VI, 289 - 90
The more I see
Pleasures about me, so much more I feel
Torment within me . . . all good to me becomes
Bane . . . . For only in destroying I find ease
To my relentless thoughts.
-- Book IX, 119 - 30
To mee shall be the glory sole among
The infernal Powers, in one day to have marr'd
What he Almighty styl'd, six Nights and Days
Continu'd making.
-- Book IX, 135 - 38
I glory in the name [Satan]
Antagonist of Heav'n's Almighty King.
-- Book X, 386 - 87
The Tree of Knowledge:
The Tree of Knowledge grew fast by,
Knowledge of Good bought dear by knowing ill.
-- Book IV, 221 - 222
Gold, the precious bane:
Gold . . . the precious bane.
-- Book I, 690 - 92
The red right hand:
What if the breath that kindl'd those grim fires
Awak'd should blow them into sevenfold rage
And plunge us in the flames? or from above
Should intermitted vengeance arm again
His red right hand to plague us?
-- (Belial) Book II, 170 - 74
(This alludes to a reference to Iuppiter in Horace's ODES I, 2)
Pandaemonium, the capital of Hell:
A solemn Council forthwith to be held
At Pandaemonium, the high Capital
Of Satan and his Peers.
-- Book I, 755 - 57
The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim
In close recess and secret conclave sat
A thousand Demi-Gods on golden seats.
-- Book I, 794 -96
High on a Throne of Royal State, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Show'rs on her Kings Barbaric Pearl and Gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd
To that bad eminence.
-- Book II, 1 - 6.
Mammon advises peace:
Our torments also may in length of time
Become our Elements, these piercing Fires
As soft as now severe, our temper chang'd
Into their temper; which must needs remove
The sensible of pain.
-- Book II, 274 -78
Beelzebub's suggested plan for revenge:
With grave
Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd
A Pillar of State; deep on his Front engraven
Deliberation sat and public care;
And Princely counsel in his face yet shone,
Majestic though in ruin.
-- Book II, 300 - 05
For he [God], be sure,
In highth or depth, still first and last will Reign
Sole King, and of his Kingdom lose no part
By our revolt, but over Hell extend
His Empire, and with Iron Sceptre rule
Us here, as with his Golden those in Heav'n.
-- Book II, 323 - 28
What if we find
Some easier enterprise?
-- Book II, 344 - 45
Long is the way and hard:
Long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.
-- Book II, 432 - 33
Death, son of Satan and Sin:
The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,
Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each seem'd either; black it stood as Night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,
And shook a dreadful Dart; what seem'd his head
The likeness of a Kingly Crown had on.
-- Book II, 666 - 73
The Goblin full of wrath.
-- Book II, 688
Death / Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile.
-- Book II, 845 - 46
Sin, the daughter of Satan:
The Snaky Sorceress that sat
Fast by Hell Gate, and kept the fatal Key.
-- Book II, 724 - 25
The Portress of Hell Gate.
-- Book II, 746
Satan pondering his mission:
Into this wild Abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his Voyage.
-- Book II, 917 - 19
Freedom of choice:
Ingrate, he had of mee
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all th' Ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood and them who fail'd;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere
Of true allegiance, constant Faith or Love,
Where only what they needs must do, appear'd
Not what they would?
-- (God on the fall of Satan and his army),
Book III, 97 - 106
If I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault.
-- Book III, 117 - 18
I form'd them free, and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves.
-- Book III, 124 - 25
The first sort by thir own suggestion fell,
Self-tempted, self-deprav'd: Man falls deceiv'd,
By the other first: Man therefore shall find grace,
The other none.
-- Book III, 129 - 32
His Will though free, / Yet mutable.
-- Book V, 236 - 37
That thou art happy, owe to God;
That thou continu'st such, owe to thyself.
-- (Raphael's admonition to Adam & Eve)
Book V, 520 -21
Freely we serve,
Because wee freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in this we stand or fall.
-- (Raphael) Book V, 538 - 40
God appoints his Son head of the angels of Heaven:
Him who disobeys / Mee disobeys.
-- Book V, 611- 12
Effulgence of my Glory, Son belov'd,
Son in whose face invisible is beheld
Visibly, what by Deity I am.
-- Book VI, 680 - 82
Either the death of Man or of Justice (short form):
Die hee or Justice must.
(expanded)
Man disobeying,
Disloyal breaks his fealty, and sins
Against the high Supremacy of Heav'n,
Affecting God-head, and so losing all,
To expiate his Treason hath naught left,
But to destruction sacred and devote,
He with his whole posterity must die,
Die hee or Justice must; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid satisfaction, death for death.
-- (God to the Son)
Book III, 203 - 12
The sacrifice of the Son of God (short form):
Account mee man.
(expanded)
Account mee man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee
Freely put off, and for him lastly die
Well pleas'd, on me let Death wreck all his rage;
Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquisht; thou hast giv'n me to possess
Life in myself for ever.
-- (Spoken by the Son to God)
Book III, 238 - 44
Metamorphic power of angels:
For Spirits when they please
Can either Sex assume, or both.
-- Book I, 423 - 24
The (Homeric) Catalogue of Fallen Angels:
First Moloch, horrid King besmear'd with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears.
-- Book I, 392 - 93
Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man
And downward Fish.
-- Book I, 462 - 63
Hypocrisy (short form):
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone.
(expanded)
For neither Man nor Angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,
By his permissive will, through Heav'n and Earth.
And oft though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom's Gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems.
-- Book III, 682 - 89
The Infernal Army:
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand Banners rise into the Air
With Orient Colours waving: with them rose
A Forest huge of Spears: and thronging Helms
Appear'd, and serried Shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable: Anon they move
In perfect Phalanx to the Dorian mood
Of Flutes and soft Recorders.
-- Book I, 544 - 51
Heroes old
Arming to Battle, and instead of rage
Deliberate valour breath'd.
-- Book I, 552 - 54
Thus they
Breathing united force with fixed thought
Mov'd on in silence to soft Pipes that charm'd
Thir painful steps o'er the burnt soil; and now
Advanc't in view they stand, a horrid Front
Of dreadful length and dazzling Arms, in guise
Of Warriors old and order'd Spear and Shield,
Awaiting what command thir mighty Chief
Had to impose.
-- Book I, 559 - 67
Adam and Eve:
Let us make now Man in our image, Man
In our similitude.
-- Book VII, 519 - 20
The Rib he form'd and fashion'd with his hands;
Under his forming hands a Creature grew,
Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair,
That what seem'd fair in all the World, seem'd now
Mean.
-- Book VIII, 470 - 73
Hee for God only, shee for God in him.
-- Book IV, 299
Hail wedded Love, mysterious Law, true source
Of human offspring, sole propriety,
In Paradise of all things common else.
-- Book IV, 750 - 52
Shee disappear'd, and left me dark.
-- (Adam of Eve) Book VIII, 478
Grace was in all her steps, Heav'n in her Eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.
-- (Adam) Book VIII, 487 - 88
Evil into the mind of God or Man
May come and go, so unapprov'd, and leave
No spot or blame behind.
-- (Adam) Book V, 117 - 19
Be lowly wise:
Sleep on,
Blest pair; and O yet happiest if ye seek
No happier state, and know to know no more.
-- Book IV, 773 - 75
Be lowly wise;
Think only what concerns thee and thy being;
Dream not of other Worlds, what Creatures there
Live, in what state, condition or decree,
Contented that thus far hath been reveal'd
Not of Earth only but of highest Heav'n.
-- (Raphael) Book VIII, 173 - 78
Be strong, live happy, and love, but first of all
Him whom to love is to obey.
-- (Raphael) Book VIII, 633 - 34
Dawn:
Now Morn her rosy steps in th' Eastern Clime
Advancing, sow'd the Earth with Orient Pearl.
-- Book V, opening lines
Truth -- standing up for what is right, even amidst great opposition:
Servant of God, well done, well hast thou fought
The better fight, who single hast maintain'd
Against revolted multitudes the Cause
Of Truth, in word mightier than they in Arms;
And for the testimony of Truth hast borne
Universal reproach, far worse to bear
Than violence.
-- (God to Abdiel) Book VI, 29 - 35
This is servitude,
To serve th' unwise, or him who hath rebell'd
Against his worthier.
-- (Abdiel) Book VI, 178 - 80
The only Son of light
In a dark age, against example good,
Against allurement, custom, and a World
Offended. . . . The one just man alive.
-- (Michael about Noah)
Book XI, 809 - 18
Suffering for Truth's sake
Is fortitude to highest victory.
-- Book XII, 569 - 70
War:
Strange to us it seem'd
At first, that Angel should with Angel war.
-- Book VI, 92
Then Satan first knew pain,
And writh'd him to and fro convolv'd.
-- Book VI, 327 - 28
The brazen Throat of War had ceast to roar.
-- Book XI, 713
Dreams:
For God is also in sleep, and Dreams advise.
-- (Eve) Book XII, 611
Solitude:
For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.
-- (Eve) Book IX, 249 50
The serpent beguiles Eve:
Ye shall not Die:
How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives you Life
To Knowledge.
-- Book IX, 685 - 07
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
Not just, not God.
-- Book IX, 700 - 01
The price of disobedience:
Let it profit thee to have heard
By terrible Example the reward
Of disobedience; firm they might have stood,
Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress.
-- Book VI, 909 - 12
[Man's disobedience] brought into this World a world of woe,
Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery,
Death's Harbinger.
-- Book IX, 11 - 13
Her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.
-- Book IX, 780 - 84
Thir Eyes how op'n'd, and thir minds
How dark'n'd; innocence, that as a veil
had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gone.
-- Book IX, 1053 - 55
A long day's dying to augment our pain,
And to our Seed (O hapless Seed!) deriv'd.
-- (Adam) Book X, 964 - 65
Miserable it is
To be to others cause of misery.
-- (Eve) Book X, 981 - 82
If by prayer
Incessant I could hope to change the will
Of him who all things can, I would not cease
To weary him with my assiduous cries.
-- (Adam) Book XI, 307 -08
Eve blames Adam for her sin (and Milton and God underscore):
Being as I am [the Rib], why didst not thou the Head
Command me absolutely not to go . . . ?
-- Book IX, 1155 - 56
Thus it shall befall
Him who to worth in Women overtrusting
Let's her Will rule; restraint she will not brook,
And left to herself, if evil thence ensue,
Shee first his weak indulgence will accuse.
-- Book IX, 1182 - 86
Was shee thy God, that her thou didst obey[?]
-- (The Voice of God in the Garden)
Book X, 145
Adorn'd
She was indeed, and lovely to attract
Thy Love, not thy Subjection.
-- (The Voice of God in the Garden)
Book X, 151 - 53
Judge not by pleasure:
Judge not what is best / By pleasure.
-- (Michael) Book XI, 603 - 04
Unworthy teachers:
Wolves shall succeed for teachers.
-- Book XII, 508
Eternity:
Beyond is all abyss,
Eternity, whose end no eye can reach.
-- Book XII, 556
The beginning:
The World was all before them, where to choose
Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide:
They hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow,
Through Eden took thir solitary way.
-- Book XII, final lines.
Daniel P. B. Smith
>
>>So how about some favourite quotes from Paradise Lost?
Well, here's my favorite quotation _about_ _Paradise Lost:_
He said: "Oh, don't talk about rewards. Look at Milton, who only got
five pounds for 'Paradise Lost.'
"And a great deal too much," I rejoined promptly. "I would have
given him twice as much myself not to have written it at all."
--Samuel Butler, _The Way of all Flesh_
Graham Weeks
>
> Well, here's my favorite quotation _about_ _Paradise Lost:_
>
> He said: "Oh, don't talk about rewards. Look at Milton, who only got
> five pounds for 'Paradise Lost.'
>
> "And a great deal too much," I rejoined promptly. "I would have
> given him twice as much myself not to have written it at all."
>
> --Samuel Butler, _The Way of all Flesh_
>
Presumably he had little sympathy with the aim of Milton in this
writing?
Is a work like Paradise Lost or Pilgrim's Progress ever fully
appreciated on literary merit alone without sympathy for the aim of the
writer?
Tom
: >Graham Weeks <wee...@dircon.co.uk> scripsit:
: >
: >>So how about some favourite quotes from Paradise Lost?
: Well, here's my favorite quotation _about_ _Paradise Lost:_
: He said: "Oh, don't talk about rewards. Look at Milton, who only got
: five pounds for 'Paradise Lost.'
: "And a great deal too much," I rejoined promptly. "I would have
: given him twice as much myself not to have written it at all."
: --Samuel Butler, _The Way of all Flesh_
Dr Johnson had mixed feelings about _Paradise Lost._ He gives it its due
very handsomely in his _Lives of the Poets_ (although he describes Milton's
politics as "those of an acrimonious & surly republican" <grin>); but in
the end, he says,
But original deficience cannot be supplied. The want of human interest
is always felt. _Paradise Lost_ is one of the books which the reader
admires & lays down, & forgets to take up again. Its perusal is a
duty rather than a pleasure. We read Milton for inctruction, retire
harrassed & overburdened, & look elsewhere for recreation; we desert
our master, & seek for companions.
A very fair criticism, I fear.
A schoolboy joke had it that Milton married & wrote _Paradise Lost_, & that
then his wife died & he wrote _Paradise Regained_. Nice joke, but checking
the dates of the poems & of his two marriages, I find that this couldn't
have happened.
Favorite quote: Adam, speaking of Eve:
...those graceful acts,
Those thousand decencies that daily flow
From all her words & actions....
Tom Parsons
--
--
t...@panix.com | The problem with any unwritten law
| is that you don't know where to go
http://www.panix.com/~twp | to erase it. --Glaser & Way
Serenleono
>Did Butler know the price of everything and the value of nothing?
I think it's important to remember here that the quote is from an
exchange of dialogue spoken by characters in a *novel* by Samuel
Butler (published in 1903) and not necessarily an expression of the
author's own sentiments. Butler shared the name of a contemporary of
Milton's who was famous for mocking Puritanism, Milton's beloved
cause, and himself satirized orthodox Christianity in his own works,
but that doesn't mean he didn't appreciate Milton. Butler and Milton
both shared a love of the classics and were passionate about elevating
the English language through literature.
>Presumably he had little sympathy with the aim of Milton in this
>writing?
If I remember the story correctly, THE WAY OF ALL FLESH paints a
rather bleak and bitter picture of 19th-century life and involves some
slightly tongue-in-cheek narrative. If the offending line was spoken
by the protagonist, Ernest -- I don't have a copy handy to check, so
it may have been someone else (his domineering father, perhaps?), --
then this is a young man who goes to prison for propositioning a woman
from a respectable family, mistaking her for a prostitute, and later
marries a maid who turns out to be a bigamist.
I'd think that a character with such a dismal history regarding women
would sympathize with Milton, given the great poet's own rocky
relationships with the women in his life and consequent (or, really, I
should say *alleged*) mysogynistic attitude.
>Is a work like Paradise Lost or Pilgrim's Progress ever fully
>appreciated on literary merit alone without sympathy for the aim of the
>writer?
A very good question. I think Milton's epic poem can be appreciated
on many different levels. There's something for nearly everyone in PL
-- warfare, treachery, the supernatural, incest, angels, devils,
courage, hatred, love, betrayal, you name it. Still, the language is
a bit difficult for the uninitiated, and some are put off by Milton's
theology. His was a faith quite sincere and vigorous, and I admire
him for that, whether I agree with all the fine points of not. While
I can't say that I am fully satisfied that Milton succeeded completely
in his mission to "justify the ways of God to men", I nonetheless am
impressed that he tried and remain forever spellbound by the
magnificently rich and exciting adventure and morality tale he created
during that attempt. I cannot help but greatly admire Milton's
remarkable scholarship, literary talent, and religious fervor, but I
know these don't suit all readers' tastes. Then again, I can't think
of *anything* that suits *all* readers' tastes.
As I like to say, "There are as many tastes as there are tongues."
obAQ: Quot capitum vivunt, totidem studiorum milia.
(For every thousand souls there are a thousand tastes.)
-- Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace), SATIRAE.
Serenleono
Those who restrain desire, do so because
theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and
the restrainer or reason usurps its place &
governs the unwilling.
And being restrained it by degrees becomes
passive till it is only the shadow of desire.
The history of this is written in Paradise Lost.
* * * *
The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he
wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when
of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true
Poet, and of the Devils [Devil's] party without
knowing it.
-- William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven
and Hell', Plate 5 (c. 1790)